Residential REITs

Apartments, single-family rental, manufactured housing and student housing.

Companies

With a moat

35%

Average quality

0 wide moat · 9 narrow moat · 17 no moat · Open in screener →

Updated 27 Sep 2026

Residential REITs covers apartments, single-family rentals, manufactured housing and student housing. MoatScope covers 27 companies here. None has a wide moat; ten have a narrow moat and 17 none.

How the industry makes money

Residential REITs earn rent on short leases, which lets them reprice quickly with the market in both directions. Location and the supply of new housing nearby drive rent growth.

Where the moats are

Moats are narrow: well-located properties in supply-constrained markets and the operating scale of the largest owners.

The narrow-moat group includes AvalonBay, Essex, Invitation Homes, Sun Communities and Mid-America Apartment. AvalonBay scores 64 on MoatScope's quality scale.

What wears moats down

New supply pressures rents, interest rates affect borrowing costs and property values, and rent regulation can cap increases.

What to watch

New apartment supply.
Rent growth and occupancy.
Interest rates.

Moat ratings and quality scores on this page update as companies report. Price versus fair value for every company in the industry is in the screener.

Market share

Businesses ranked by revenue, with each one's share of the market's total: companies filed under this industry, the segments of companies filed elsewhere that compete in it, and the largest companies MoatScope doesn't cover, such as private companies and companies listed outside the US. Each market's total comes from a cited source and covers the geography its businesses compete in (a national market counts only US revenue). A company that runs several businesses is split by the segments it reports.

US market · $771.6B total revenue in 2025 · source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Shares are of the whole market, including companies MoatScope doesn't cover; company revenue is for the fiscal year closest to 2025. All rent paid by US tenants (BEA).

#	Business	Market share	Revenue
1	VMRK · VIVMARK RESIDENTIAL	0.4%	$3.1B
2	AVB · AVALONBAY COMMUNITIES INC	0.4%	$3.0B
3	INVH · Invitation Homes Inc.	0.4%	$2.7B
4	MAA · MID AMERICA APARTMENT COMMUNITIES INC.	0.3%	$2.2B
5	ESS · ESSEX PROPERTY TRUST, INC.	0.2%	$1.9B
6	AMH · American Homes 4 Rent	0.2%	$1.9B
7	SUI · SUN COMMUNITIES INC US revenue	0.2%	$1.8B
8	UDR · UDR, Inc.	0.2%	$1.7B
9	CPT · CAMDEN PROPERTY TRUST	0.2%	$1.6B
10	IRT · INDEPENDENCE REALTY TRUST, INC.	<0.1%	$658M
	All other companies	97.1%	$749.3B

Companies

Company	Moat	Quality
AVB AVALONBAY COMMUNITIES INC	Narrow	64	0.4%	$26.3B
VMRK VIVMARK RESIDENTIAL	Narrow	55	0.4%	$22.8B
ESS ESSEX PROPERTY TRUST, INC.	Narrow	56	0.2%	$17.1B
INVH Invitation Homes Inc.	Narrow	55	0.4%	$15.8B
SUI SUN COMMUNITIES INC	Narrow	57	0.2%	$14.3B
MAA MID AMERICA APARTMENT COMMUNITIES INC.	Narrow	61	0.3%	$13.5B
AMH American Homes 4 Rent	Narrow	58	0.2%	$11.1B
UDR UDR, Inc.	Narrow	54	0.2%	$11.0B
CPT CAMDEN PROPERTY TRUST	Narrow	45	0.2%	$9.8B
IRT INDEPENDENCE REALTY TRUST, INC.	None	44	<0.1%	$3.4B
ARR Armour Residential REIT, Inc.	None	27	—	$1.7B
UMH UMH PROPERTIES, INC.	None	30	<0.1%	$1.3B
CSR CENTERSPACE	None	42	<0.1%	$922M
NXRT NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc.	None	13	<0.1%	$459M
TCI TRANSCONTINENTAL REALTY INVESTORS INC	None	18	<0.1%	$423M
FRPH FRP HOLDINGS, INC.	None	29	<0.1%	$361M
ARL AMERICAN REALTY INVESTORS INC	None	17	<0.1%	$268M
BRT BRT Apartments Corp.	None	31	<0.1%	$247M
AIV APARTMENT INVESTMENT & MANAGEMENT CO	None	33	<0.1%	$236M
LFT Lument Finance Trust, Inc.	None	29	—	$222M
ELME Elme Communities	None	29	<0.1%	$156M
FREVS FIRST REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST OF NEW JERSEY, INC.	None	38	<0.1%	$139M
CLPR Clipper Realty Inc.	None	8	<0.1%	$50M
BHM Bluerock Homes Trust, Inc.	None	16	<0.1%	$32M
NEN NEW ENGLAND REALTY ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP	None	39	<0.1%	$6M
MKZR MacKenzie Realty Capital, Inc.	None	11	<0.1%	$3M

26 companies.

Market share is a company's revenue in its main market as a share of that market's total: every company in it, including private companies and companies listed outside the US (sources under each market above). Revenue is for the fiscal year closest to 2025, and a market that is national (such as US banking) counts only US revenue. Companies that run several businesses are split by the segments they report, and each segment counts in its own market. A dash means the market has no reliable total yet, or no revenue was reported for that year.

Price versus fair value for every company is in the screener.

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