Lennar raises $2.2 billion for rental investment fund

Miami-based Lennar Corporation completed fund-raising for its Lennar Multifamily Venture with commitments totaling $2.2 billion to develop and own rental housing properties.

The Lennar Multifamily Venture now has 9,100 apartments under development in 31 communities with backing from six institutional investors, including foreign pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies. Lennar itself has made a $504 million commitment to the venture.

“As the multifamily development cycle has started to mature, we feel this is the right time to pivot to a strategy that is less reliant on merchant building, or ‘build to sell,’ and focuses on ‘build to own,’ “ Todd Farrell, president of Lennar’s apartment building subsidiary, said in a written statement. “We have assembled a strong partnership with like-minded, patient capital investors.”

Lnnar’s wholly owned Lennar Multifamily Communities (LMC) subsidiary completed the fund-raising after obtaining a $250 million commitment.

LMC, which Lennar formed in 2011, now has about 13,000 apartments in 45 communities under construction or in operation.

Including those properties, the Lennar subsidiary’s total development pipeline is packed with more than 23,000 apartments that will cost more than $7 billion to build.