The Fragmentation and Concentration of Property Management in US Rental Markets

Residential property management companies are important players in the apartment industry, filling a variety of roles to keep apartment properties running smoothly and profitably. With so many crucial responsibilities, property managers can be central to the tenant experience and the upkeep of the building, in turn affecting resident retention, owners’ bottom lines, and the appearance of communities. Yet, there is not much information about the landscape of property managers with recent scholarship primarily focusing on the entities that own rental properties. Variations in property management companies and the degree to which the industry is concentrated remain largely unexplored. 

This paper uses data from Yardi Matrix to describe the scale and portfolios of property management companies. I find that the property management industry is fragmented with almost 12,000 companies operating across the country in the segment covered by Yardi. Even so, there are several large players that manage hundreds of properties, and companies of different sizes specialize their portfolios by property class and geography. This does lead to some concentration of property management among large companies in certain sectors and in specific markets.