When people think of a rentable unit, an apartment complex may come to mind. However, a model that took root in Southern Nevada in the 1980s is seeing a resurgence — built-to-rent homes.

They are single-story houses, detached from other units and have a garage. They are built in communities that look just like traditional neighborhoods where houses are purchased by the residents.

The construction of built-to-rent homes hit a record high in 2022, with 14,500 new houses built with the intent to cater to renters nationwide. Las Vegas is one of the top 20 metropolitan areas for built-to-rent home construction, according to the apartment search site RentCafe.

Las Vegas is projected to see 656 new, built-to-rent, single-family homes enter the market in 2023, making it 16th in the nation for built-to-rent units under construction. This number surpasses markets in several larger cities including Minneapolis and Chicago.

Northern Nevada is also seeing an uptick in built-to-rent homes. Reno’s built-to-rent communities grew by 14 percent since 2017 for a total of 834 units in 2022. The state as a whole ranks eighth in the nation for the most built-to-rent homes, with more than 4,000 units as of 2022. 

Randy Bury is the founder and owner of Moderne, which has a built-to-rent community in North Las Vegas. He attributes Nevada’s transient population, the high cost of traditional housing and people waiting until they are older to start a family but still wanting the traditional housing lifestyle as reasons Southern Nevada residents may find themselves drawn to renting — rather than buying — when they move into their first house.

Similar to traditional apartment complexes, Moderne’s built-to-rent community is made up of units overseen by a manager. Tenants cannot significantly modify or buy the unit. Amenities such as a pool, gym and maintenance are also available.

Unlike traditional apartments, the units at Moderne are large and spread out horizontally, rather than smaller and stacked on top of each other. They also have yards and the appearance of a traditional home.

Bury said built-to-rent communities are nothing new.

“This is kind of the new version of it. There are more highly amenitized communities than they were,” Bury said. “There are some people in Phoenix who say that they invented it, this product type, these horizontal apartments. But, you know, they've had it in Tucson in the ’80s and they've had it in Las Vegas from the ’80s. I mean, look at the Buffalo Highlands.”

The Buffalo Highlands is a horizontal apartment complex that has operated in Las Vegas since 1988. The business has sister properties in the Las Vegas Valley including Rainbow Highlands and Spring Valley Highlands.

Kelly McCarthy, who has lived at Buffalo Highlands for over a decade, now works as a property manager for the business. In an email to The Nevada Independent, she described living at Buffalo Highlands as “all the benefits of a home with none of the hassle; if something breaks we fix it.”

All of the maintenance is handled by the management team. No long-term commitment is necessary and rent is about $1,500 a month, McCarthy wrote.

“Our calling card was ‘Country Living in the City,’” McCarthy wrote in the email earlier this month. “The single-story garden apartment concept, each with its own attached garage was a big hit and we were 100% leased before we opened.”

McCarthy said Buffalo Highlands’ sister properties met similar success, with all units leased before opening. However, many residents opt out of putting down permanent roots.

“Las Vegas is and always has been a transient town,” McCarthy wrote. “Typically annual turnover is in the 20%-30% range.”

Though built-to-rent homes are a well-established housing type, Bury said some homeowners are scared away over myths about renters letting a home fall into disrepair because they don’t own the property.

"It's almost just the opposite," Bury said, explaining that because the property is managed by an investor with personal stakes in the home, the house is less likely to fall into disrepair because someone is managing it closely. 

However, Bury said this stereotype was partly what drove people to built-to-rent communities rather than renting a home in a neighborhood full of traditional homeowners. 

"The renter being in [a] community of homeowners, they feel like they're second class," Bury said. 

Bury said that stereotype is changing.

"People want choices and this … just expands their choices, their alternatives for housing. And I think that's a good thing," he said.