by Eric Seymour
As part of our ongoing research project supported by the New Jersey State Policy Lab, we are examining the growth of corporate ownership in the state’s small residential property market. Our focus is on 1- to 4-unit properties, which, in addition to accounting for the majority of owner-occupied units, also make up a large share of New Jersey’s rental housing stock. These properties have historically served dual roles, providing accessible pathways to homeownership and operating as important components of long-standing rental markets, with some having always operated as rentals. Using parcel-level property tax data, we tracked changes in ownership from 2012 to 2022 to understand where corporate landlords are active, how they are acquiring properties, and what this might mean for housing access and stability.
Our last post identified the municipalities with the highest rates of corporate ownership and traced where corporate landlords acquired their properties. In many cases, these homes had previously been owner-occupied. Others were purchased from smaller-scale landlords or investors, suggesting both shifts in tenure and changes in the structure of local rental markets. In this post, we step back to show the broader landscape of corporate ownership across New Jersey, mapping all municipalities with at least 1,000 small (1- to 4-unit) residential properties to highlight patterns across municipalities and regions of the state, and labeling the 12 municipalities where 13% or more of these properties are owned by corporate entities (see Figure 1).
Higher corporate ownership rates appear in a range of New Jersey municipalities, including larger cities like Trenton, Newark, and Camden; smaller inland cities such as Bridgeton and Salem; and several shore communities, including Asbury Park and Atlantic City. These municipalities vary in size, location, and regional context, but many are more heavily developed with older housing stock and long-standing rental markets. Figure 1 also shows that corporate ownership remains relatively limited across much of the state, especially in more affluent suburban areas with higher home values and homeownership rates.
As noted in our last post, many properties owned by a corporate entity in 2022 had been acquired from non-corporate investors, including properties that were already part of the rental market. In Bridgeton, for example, a large portfolio of rental homes previously held by a single landlord was sold to a corporate buyer, contributing to one of the highest municipal rates of corporate ownership in the state. In general, many of the municipalities with high corporate ownership rates in 2022 already had sizable small rental property markets in 2012.
This work is part of a larger effort to bring data and context to a set of changes in housing tenure and ownership that have drawn increasing attention from policymakers, journalists, and housing advocates. Different slices of the data tell different parts of the story. Our forthcoming report will offer a more complete picture of where corporate ownership is expanding, how these properties are entering corporate hands, and what these changes suggest for policy.
Figure 1: Rates of corporate ownership of 1- to 4-unit properties among New Jersey municipalities, 2022
