Investor Launching $100M BTR Fund To Capitalize On Opportunity From Housing Bill

PPR Capital Management just began investing in the build-to-rent housing sector last year, and now it is looking to pounce on a market it sees as benefiting from the new federal housing law. 

The Wayne, Pennsylvania-based firm this week is launching the PPR Keystone Housing Growth Fund, its first-ever fund focused on build-to-rent housing. PPR executives tell Bisnow it has a fundraising target of $100M. 

The fund is designed to buy build-to-rent communities from the developers that constructed them. This type of sale was ultimately allowed by the 21st Century Road to Housing Act after months of debate over a proposal that would have required these types of homes be sold to individual buyers. 

The lengthy period of uncertainty froze the BTR market and caused financial distress that PPR is looking to capitalize on.

"There's a lot of product available across the markets we're targeting that has been built to rent but that the builder, their original take-out isn't there anymore," PPR Chief Asset Officer Craig Johnsen said. "So we are targeting build-to-rent properties, but also taking the development risk out of there and buying from distressed sellers."

He named 10 regions the firm is targeting: Dallas, Salt Lake City, Nashville, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Chicago, Raleigh, Denver, West Palm Beach and Richmond. 

The fund is raising money from accredited individual investors, and its minimum check size is $50K. It is looking to buy properties with between 150 and 250 units, and with its $100M fundraising target, Johnsen said he anticipates that would yield six to eight deals. 

Founded in 2007, PPR is a private equity firm with $1.5B in assets under management. It has historically focused on acquiring nonperforming loans and residential mortgages. The firm began buying some multifamily in 2022 before entering the BTR sector last year. 

Johnsen said there were distressed BTR situations popping up early last year even before Congress disrupted the market. An overbuilding of units in some markets made it impossible for some developers to achieve the rents they needed to hit their return projections. 

An estimated 68,000 build-to-rent housing units began construction in the U.S. last year, according to the National Association of Home Builders, below the 2024 peak of 84,000 units but above most other years this century. 

Some developers that have been unable to hit their rent projections have decided to cut their losses and sell, Johnsen said. 

This was the case for the first BTR deal PPR closed in March 2025: the $87M purchase of the Highline at Knoxville in Tennessee.  

"That happened to be one where the first phase of construction was totally complete and the second phase was underway, and they were looking to get out of the deal — they could see how the economics were going," Johnsen said. 

While these conditions existed early last year, the lengthy Road to Housing debate made it much more difficult for BTR developers to sell their assets, as prospective buyers didn't know how the rules for the market would be rewritten. 

Now that the bill became law Saturday at midnight — without President Donald Trump's signature — the market appears ripe for a rebound. Hunter Housing Economics President Brad Hunter told Bisnow this week that BTR "could absolutely be one of the biggest winners" of the legislation.

Johnsen described the BTR market as being "over the hurdle."

"We’re not anticipating any additional headwinds from a regulatory standpoint for build-to-rent going forward," he said. "So that makes it a great time, especially given one reason a building might be under distress or needs capital to take them out was because of this three- to six-month period where there was a pause."

Much of the debate over the bill had centered on lawmakers' concerns about large companies buying up single-family houses and pricing individuals out of the market. The law ultimately kept some restrictions for institutional investors buying single-family homes, but it included a carve-out for build-to-rent properties. 

Developers that built single-family home projects intentionally for renters did so with the plan of ultimately selling to another landlord, rather than individuals, so Johnsen said the economics wouldn't work for them to sell homes one by one.

And he said these properties don't present an attractive investment for homebuyers compared to renting, given the elevated interest rates and homeownership costs like association fees and maintenance. 

"The levered return on buying a townhome for a homeowner is not actually good anymore," he said. "When I look at it in terms of PPR wanting to supply housing to people, it’s more cost-effective for a company like ourselves to experience economies of scale."

While PPR isn't building new housing with this fund, Johnsen said allowing developers to exit their prior projects frees them up to build more.

More build-to-rent housing is needed across the country because Americans are increasingly renting for longer periods of their lives, but some still want the comfort of a single-family home with a yard. 

This creates strong demand for BTR housing, and Johnsen said he doesn't see that changing anytime soon. He said that is part of why PPR decided to focus on BTR with its new fund.

"Going forward, rents in build-to-rent properties — or properties that mimic single-family housing, whether it’s a townhome or detached single-family — are going to significantly outperform rents at your more traditional garden-style, podium-style multifamily property," he said. 

"But right now, especially given some of the supply surges that have happened in these Sun Belt markets, that's not really reflected in their valuations," he added. "So we think there's a great opportunity for our investors to get in with relatively low downside."