Blackstone is a firm founded back in 1985 by its current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson, who retired in 2008 as Senior Chairman. The premier global investment and advisory firm, as stated in their webpage, strives to provide solutions that create lasting value for their investors, the companies in which the firm invests and the society at large.
Invitation Homes is Blackstone's Real Estate Portfolio Company, they provide renovated single-family homes for rent on several US locations, one of which is Atlanta.
According to a report, the Blackstone Group's Invitation Homes are now starting to sell houses in the Atlanta area after spending more than $9 billion in a US property-buying spree. The group is shifting its focus from rapid expansion to fine-tuning its holdings. The housing company is now selling around 1,300 houses in the Atlanta area that were supposedly for lease because it does not fit Blackstone's strategy of targeting communities with higher rents and quality schools.
According to a Bloomberg report, Chief Executive Officer of Invitation Homes, John Bartling said, "It's that stage in our lives where we're now in a position of looking at dispositions as an active part of portfolio balance." Bartling continued, "You should expect us to sell 5 percent of our portfolio every year."
After the real estate crash, the Blackstone group led several private equity firms, hedge funds and other large investors in acquiring thousands of houses to create a new asset class of single-family rentals. The market is now recovering and the landlords are now seeking ways to increase their profit by raising the cost of leasing and making operations more efficient.
The Invitation Homes CEO declined to disclose the sale price of the Atlanta-area houses or the buyer, citing a nondisclosure agreement. The report continued that Bartling stated that the company is still continuously buying houses to be renovated and will own about 48,000 properties after the deal.