American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Bryan Smith: We think 97% is very healthy for the way that we — the way that we’re turning homes, the speed with which we’re able to re-tenant them. We think it matches the demand. We’re comfortable with that level. We’re — just terms as a reminder, too, we look at the revenue line holistically. We’re managing to maximize revenue across and there’s a little bit of push and pull on rate and occupancy. But I think 97% occupancy is a good target for us this year.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Austin Wurschmidt with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Austin Wurschmidt: Great. Thank you and good morning everybody. The breakdown of development this year is tilting more heavily towards the wholly-owned projects versus last year, a fairly significant shift in increase in your funding commitment. But I guess if the capital markets remain volatile and your cost of capital isn’t where you’d like it to be, presumably, you won’t have the benefit of that accessing equity proceeds that you guys fortuitously did last year. So, just how do you think about future funding to keep your share of development funding commitments ramping in future years to get you moving closer towards that 3,000 to 5,000 home goal that you referenced earlier?

Christopher Lau: Yes, good morning Austin, Chris here. Good question. One of my favorite topics. A couple of considerations here is, one, Part of this is the rationale and thought process behind agreeing to expand our joint venture with JPMorgan Asset Management, bringing in incremental JV capital capacity to make sure that we’re remaining opportunistic on incremental land and development opportunities. But we’re in — as we’re thinking about the existing wholly owned pipeline, as we’ve talked about many times before, we’ve strategically sized that to-date to be fundable without the need for equity. And so, if you think about the development of the existing pipeline this year or next year, et cetera, building out the land that we already have is fundable be a combination of retained cash flow from the business, recycled capital — a little bit of recycled capital from dispositions, and modest leverage capacity off of the balance sheet with, again, no need for equity to build out what we have on the balance sheet for our wholly-owned pipeline.

And then expanding going forward, will be a consideration relative to current cost of capital considerations and looking for the right sourcing of capital, whether that’s on balance sheet or via our joint ventures.

Austin Wurschmidt: That’s helpful, Chris. And then, Dave, you referenced cap rates in the mid-5% range or 50 basis points inside where they become more attractive to you. But I’m just curious who are the most active buyers you see today at that mid-5% level, are you seeing deals get re-traded at all? And what do you think changes to push pricing in your direction? Because today, I think you’re on a spot basis in and around or just inside that mid-5% level, but yes, just curious about your thoughts there. Thank you.

David Singelyn: Yes. So, the actual buyers today at an institutional level have significantly gone to the sidelines most have — there are a couple of private SFR companies that have started repurchasing at a very reduced level from what they were acquiring at previously. What we are seeing in the pricing is we are starting to finally see some of that pricing coming down. The asset value is coming down. Now, that’s an interesting statement because it is a very volatile market. And we have also seen the pricing of the national builder programs been coming down. And then in the last week or two, it looks like they’ve either moderated, flatlined or maybe even gone the other way. So, it continues to go up and down. This is where you need to be patient.

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