CHICAGO—Since November 2013, the single-family rental market has seen more than dozen securitizations, and Cohen Financial, a Chicago-based real estate capital services firm, was recently appointed primary servicer of a $240.8 million securitization offered by FirstKey Lending. However, most securitizations to date have been single-borrower, and this offering is one of the first multi-borrower SFR transactions. Sixteen loans secured by mortgages on 3,628 single-family, two- to four-unit and multifamily rental properties will collateralize FirstKey Lending 2015-SFR1.

And Tim Mazzetti, president of Cohen Financial's Investor Services, tells GlobeSt.com that the vast expansion of the SFR market brought about by the housing crash and the continuing reluctance by many younger consumers to purchase homes will help this new lending product play an expanding role in the coming years.

“We're talking about a huge drop in homeownership,” he says. Before the crash, roughly 70% of the homes in the US were owned, but that number has fallen to the low 60s, one of the lowest rates in 30 to 40 years. Giant private equity firms such as the Blackstone Group have assembled portfolios with thousands of homes and found they get better returns by leasing instead of selling the properties. They also saw an opportunity to create a new long-term loan product.