Imagine this: an active-duty service member is temporarily relocated to Robins Air Force Base. He has a wife and two kids, but they can’t find a house to rent that they can afford near the base. Since their service to the nation involves regular relocations, buying a house isn’t practical, and the only place they can find to rent is miles away without good schools nearby.
Now, apply this scenario to the 70,000 active-duty military personnel living in Georgia. If lawmakers approve housing legislation currently under review (SB 463), this scenario could become reality for thousands of service members across the state. Our military men and women deserve better.
Lawmakers are correctly focusing on Georgia’s housing affordability and supply issues, and that is laudable. However, SB 463 is ultimately flawed. The state’s housing shortage is estimated at 365,000 homes or more, but this proposal would lead to even fewer options for Georgia families. Professional housing providers and housing investors are not part of the state’s housing problem. The truth is that they increase the availability of quality housing options where families can build roots and find stability, especially when they are not in a position to buy. Banning or limiting these housing providers will raise housing prices for Georgians by cutting off investment and limiting supply.
In addition to military families, countless other communities in Georgia rely on single-family rentals, including first responders like firefighters and police officers, nurses and other frontline workers, single parents, and teachers. Many of these families are living paycheck to paycheck and can’t afford to buy a home yet. Others have jobs that require frequent relocation. Single-family rental housing provides these individuals with options, access to good neighborhoods, and an opportunity to save for a down payment on their path to homeownership.
Professionally managed housing providers aren’t a part of the housing problem in Georgia; they are a significant part of the solution. By rehabilitating dilapidated and vacant properties at scale, they make houses affordable for families who otherwise wouldn’t have access to them. These investments also help bring neglected homes back to the market, so families have a place to live.
A recent study by the Center for Generational Kinetics found that only one in five current renters would attempt to buy a home if they were displaced. More than one in ten would face housing insecurity, including the risk of homelessness. Single-family rentals provide a clear pathway to homeownership, with 20-25% of renters able to buy a home after saving and repairing their credit while renting.
The misconceptions driving legislation in the Georgia legislature don’t align with the reality for many Georgians. Institutional investors own less than 3% of single-family homes in the state. Rather than limiting opportunities for first-time homebuyers, professionally managed housing providers have actually been net sellers for nearly two straight years and often prioritize sales to homebuyers through first-look programs. At the same time, they are shifting investment toward build-to-rent communities, developments that add entirely new housing supply that would not otherwise exist. The real culprit of today’s housing challenges? Anti-growth policies like restrictive zoning and permitting red tape, rising construction costs, and elevated mortgage rates.
Georgia lawmakers have the opportunity to safeguard the American Dream for those who serve our communities and many other Georgians by acknowledging that professional single-family rentals help address today’s housing challenges, rather than contribute to them. We know lawmakers support service members and frontline workers, and protecting the housing options they depend on is an important part of continuing that commitment.
Adrianne Todman is the president and CEO of the National Rental Home Council, the trade association for the single-family rental (SFR) home industry.
