Robert Dickerson and his wife Marion live in a three-bedroom home at Brooks, one of 488 new and under-construction houses in the Los Cielos neighborhood of single-family homes and duplexes on the South Side.
For Dickerson, a Vietnam War-era veteran, living on a former military installation is familiar and comfortable.
There are conveniences nearby and the management company handles repairs and yard maintenance while he enjoys daily access to a fully-equipped fitness center and other amenities.
Los Cielos is among a growing number of communities across San Antonio where new single-family homes are built to serve as rentals, much like a multifamily apartment complex.
Amid three full years of median rent declines in the 50 largest U.S. cities, rental homes continue to be a more affordable option than buying, according to Realtor.com’s July rent report.
When the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act passed without an initial provision in the bill that threatened to quell the build-to-rent sector, more such housing is now expected to enter the market.
In San Antonio, there are more than 6,200 built-to-rent homes, up from 446 in 2018, according to data from the real estate analytics firm CoStar. Another 335 were under construction as of the second quarter this year.
The share of new-construction home starts in San Antonio that were built-to-rent in 2025 was 4%, down from a high of 9% in 2022, according to CoStar.
Nationwide, 7% of new single-family houses hitting the market are now for built to rent, not sale, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
But the market has softened some, according to data from the Census Bureau, which shows there were approximately 18,000 single-family built-for-rent home starts during the third quarter of 2025, down 6,000 from the same period the year before.
Two of the newest communities in San Antonio are Dickerson’s neighborhood at Brooks and another 317-unit development in Northeast San Antonio, Altura.
Both were built by the developer AHV Communities of San Antonio and are managed by South Carolina-based GreyStar.
AHV began building rental home communities in 2012. AHV’s first build-to-rent in San Antonio was Village at Vickery Grove, near Hausman Road and Loop 1604, which opened in 2015.
It now has five rental communities in the city, including Frame in the South Texas Medical Center and others in states like Colorado, Tennessee and Alabama.
AHV also has plans to build a build-to-rent community at Potranco Road and Highway 211 starting this fall.
“We’re about 92% on the leased on the existing stabilized assets,” said Mark Wolf, founder and CEO, AHV Communities. . “It’s a very desired product, [though] we’ve had to drop our rents due to market conditions.”
Others in San Antonio include Integrity Community Builders and Tricon.
Built-to-rent communities are designed to be permanent rental communities and are an extension of multifamily, which is good at providing studio or one- and two-bedroom housing, Wolf said.
But for some, traditional rental apartment living isn’t ideal, he said, especially young families looking for more space, people who are transient like military service members, or empty-nesters who prefer a low-maintenance, lock-and-leave lifestyle.
Renting a home is also an alternative to buying a house at a time when the concept of building equity through homeownership isn’t “as real as people claim,” Wolf said.
“To build real equity in a house, you’ve got to put down 20%,” as a deposit, he said. “Otherwise, you’re just paying the bank in PMI [private mortgage insurance] this huge inflated number [because] most people are buying houses with 3%, 5%, 7%, 10% down.”
PMI is insurance homebuyers are required to take out on a conventional loan if they’re making a down payment of less than 20%. It protects the lender if the homeowner stops making payments on the loan.
That means the buyer is paying up to $100 monthly in PMI in addition to homeowner’s insurance and property taxes, Wolf said.
Renting potentially opens the door to “a nicer house in a nicer area with a pool and a fitness center and maintenance … for a lot cheaper than it would be to find a down payment on a house in hopes [of building] equity in my house over time,” Wolf said.
At Los Cielos, monthly rent rates range between $1,899 for a two-bedroom home and $2,707 for a four-bedroom. AHV offers lease terms of nine to 24 months, with management fees of $140 to $160 a month. The non-refundable pet deposit is $350 per pet, and an additional $25 a month in rent.
A remodeled four-bedroom, 1,308-square-foot house in the area recently listed for $179,000. With 20% down payment, a 30-year mortgage and almost $43,000 due at closing, monthly payments on the home would come to $1,433.
The decision whether to rent or buy a home is as much about an individual’s personal “timeline” as it is about market conditions and lifestyle preferences, said Eric Bernstein, president and co-founder of Austin-based Lendfriend Mortgage.
“I think the rent-versus-own conversation is just more about, ‘Where are you at right now?’” he said. “You tell me how long you’re planning on staying in San Antonio, and I can then tell you the answer of whether or not buying a primary residence is a good idea.”
While every borrower’s scenario is unique, in general, the longer you’re planning to stay, the math shows it’s better to buy, he said.
A rent-versus-buy calculator can be helpful to consumers, too.
“I think the build-to-rent is a good option for builders who are sitting on a lot of inventory that they can’t necessarily move, and looking at falling rental prices,” Bernstein said, plus the market demand for such arrangements.
It’s also a good option for people who feel priced out of the homebuying market for a whole host of reasons, including today’s tighter lending standards, high levels of student loan debt and other economic pressures.
Wolf said he’s glad to see lawmakers didn’t pass a bill that could have limited build-to-rent as an option.
“The Road to Housing Act is now cleared for us to go out and continue to do what we do,” he said. “The path is cleared to get back to work probably in 2027, to get back to the drawing board and start bringing up deals again.”
