Amid Charlotte’s affordable housing crisis, corporate landlords grow single-family home market share

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — The competition for homes in Charlotte is intensifying — and more and more, it’s not between families. It’s between families and corporations.

A new study from UNC Charlotte’s Urban Institute shows corporate landlords now own roughly 7.5% of single-family homes in Mecklenburg County — a 65% increase in market share from 2019 to 2023.

“Corporate landlords have uprated a large space within the discussion on affordable housing and the housing crisis,” Eric Moore, senior research associate at UNC Charlotte, who led the study, said.

By the end of 2023, researchers found more than 5,800 corporations owned single-family homes across the county, many clustered in central Mecklenburg.