intelligence, and ability to execute. A recent testament to this belief was Private Equity Real Estate (PERE) naming Greystar as the Global Residential Investor of the Year for 2025, which marks the fifth time in the past eight years we have received this industry recognition. This identity matters more than ever today because we believe we are entering a period of performance dispersion, where the spread between mediocre and great outcomes widens in a meaningful way. In a dispersion environment, “market exposure” and “financial engineering” will not be the primary determinant of results. Market narratives still matter — rates, supply, demand, capital flows – but they are no longer sufficient to create differentiated outcomes. In every cycle, there are plenty of ways to create the appearance of performance — timing, leverage, financial engineering, or riding a favorable interest rate cycle. But enduring success in real assets is built differently. It is built through disciplined execution, research and data-driven strategy, sourcing the best opportunities in the best markets, and a relentless focus on asset-level value creation. This is especially true in a market where outcomes are increasingly determined by operator capability, not market beta. What separates the real winners is the ability to read inflections early, make decisions quickly as the facts change, and deliver operating performance consistently across markets and strategies. Put simply: in this cycle, execution drives returns.
Where We See Opportunity Today
Stepping back, the global rental housing thesis remains intact, and we believe the most difficult part of this cycle is behind us. Demand in the world’s great cities remains durable, supply is structurally constrained across many gateway markets, and homeownership affordability has been materially eroded. The rent-versus-own cost gap remains near a 25-year high in favor of renting, keeping more households renting for longer and driving move-outs to homeownership to historic lows across our portfolios. We do not see this dynamic reversing any time soon, resulting in strong retention and absorption across all rental product types. And as markets move toward a more normal operating environment, outcomes are no longer driven by broad market forces but by differences across geography, asset quality, and operator capability. In the U.S., peak deliveries are behind us, and uneven recoveries are creating opportunity for disciplined market selection. We are seeing acquisition opportunities in markets already in recovery where positive leverage exists, where our basis is below replacement costs, and where “zombie” owners have left material asset repositioning potential. These are the tell-tale factors for successful value-add investments. Additionally, development economics have turned where we expect suburban, garden-style product priced for the middle market to produce healthy and appropriate risk-adjusted returns.
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