The built-to-rent industry has been plagued by regulatory uncertainty over the past couple of months, but AMH, the nation’s premier BTR builder, with a portfolio of more than 60,000 rental homes, reported that 2026 started with strong demand and an improving supply picture. 

During the company’s Q4 2025 earnings call in February, AMH executives noted that the BTR industry faced an oversupply of new homes. As a result, leadership laid out plans to reduce deliveries and increase dispositions in a bid to align supply with demand. 

Since then, AMH executives noted progress in resolving the supply glut, despite lingering imbalances in many Sun Belt markets. The company also reported “record” demand during parts of the spring leasing season, along with revenue gains and positive momentum in rental rates. 

Nevertheless, regulatory uncertainty continues to obscure the business outlook, so much so that those policy questions took center stage in discussions on the company’s Q1 2026 earnings call held last Thursday.

Regulatory hurdles cloud the picture

Much of the Q&A between AMH strategic executives and Wall Street equity research representatives related to Section 901 of the U.S. Senate’s version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which passed the Senate on March 12. Section 901 would ban large institutional investors with 350 or more single-family homes from purchasing additional single-family properties, other than manufactured housing. It would also require new BTR communities to transition to individual ownership within seven years.

Section 901, while not yet enacted into law, has already largely frozen capital investment into the BTR sector. This is a trend that AMH executives took note of. 

“I think some of the uncertainty that we’ve seen this year has really put a pause on a lot of the transaction market. What we have seen, though, is more of a willingness from some of the mid-size operators to discuss ways that they could partner with us. Nothing’s happened because of this kind of overhang, but we do believe that it could create some opportunity going forward,” AMH CEO Bryan Smith said on the call. 

The result of this regulatory limbo, Smith said, is a reduction in new supply breaking ground over the past couple of months. 

“It definitely has affected supply. It’s been widely discussed…what we’ve seen this year on capital coming into the space. I think it’ll have a probably a more immediate effect on the build-to-rent projects. I believe a lot of them that were in sight will get completed, but it’s changed people’s outlook,” he explained. 

If the bill and its Section 901 pass, it will likely have enormous implications for the BTR industry, potentially impacting supply and leading to higher rental rates. 

“As I spoke of earlier, anything that restricts supply is gonna be bad for housing affordability. The existing rental units that we have will maybe be looked at with a premium. We’re optimistic, though, that that won’t be the final outcome,” Smith said. 

Matching new supply with demand

During AMH’s Q4 2025 earnings call in February, executives noted that they planned to scale back new construction in response to an excess supply of new BTR units, which weighed on rental and occupancy rates. This overhang of new supply was particularly pronounced in the Sun Belt. 

In 2025, AMH delivered 2,300 homes, but going into 2026, the company forecasted deliveries to decline to 1,900 homes. 

The company delivered 539 new homes last quarter, roughly equal to that of a year ago, but construction is likely to ebb through the balance of the year. This is part of a concerted effort to recalibrate supply with demand. 

According to executives, the supply picture measurably improved over the last few months, but an imbalance remains in certain markets.  

“There’s still some standing inventory in some parts of the country that needs to be consumed, and the rate at which that gets consumed is gonna vary market by market, depending on how much is there and what the demand profile for those particular areas looks like. We still see heavy inventory in Arizona and Texas, and it’s gonna take a little bit longer, probably, to work through some of the supply there,” AMH Executive VP and COO Lincoln Palmer said. 

AMH has its own fully integrated, in-house development program that builds and manages its own communities. This gives the company flexibility to ramp up or scale back starts depending on market conditions and demand. 

“We have the flexibility to flex up or flex down in response to current market conditions. In this case, some of the regulatory uncertainty and cost of capital considerations have driven us to [a lower] output expectation for ‘26. As we go through and things get worked out in Washington, depending on the outcome, there may be really nice opportunities that could provide a catalyst for the development program,” Smith explained. 

Strategically utilizing dispositions 

During that earlier February call, AMH executives also detailed plans to increase dispositions of non-core assets. This vision partially reflects an effort to align supply with demand, but also signals a shift in the company’s strategy. 

AMH was founded in 2012, and initially bought a significant number of homes through the MLS. Over the last few years, the company has rotated through its existing home portfolios and now predominantly builds its own inventory. As a result, many older homes acquired in AMH’s earlier years are now considered non-core assets that are eligible for disposition.

Last quarter, AMH sold 710 non-core homes, an increase from 416 a year prior. These homes are generally older, have smaller-than-average square footage, and typically have lower rents and smaller rental yields than the rest of the company’s portfolio. 

Selling off these assets enables AMH to focus on its newer homes, while generating cash flow for other core aspects of the business. The 710 non-core dispositions last quarter generated roughly $199 million in net proceeds. 

“Each and every quarter, as homes vacate, we can inspect them and finalize the decision as to whether or not they are appropriate disposition and capital recycling candidates,” AMH CFO Chris Lau said, explaining that dispositions allow the company to “optimize the portfolio at a super granular unit-by-unit level.” 

Leveraging strong demand to build rental rates and occupancy

Executives noted strong demand among would-be renters during Q1. Rents and other single-family property revenues increased 2.8% year-over-year, and the company posted an average occupied days percentage of 95.1%, roughly equivalent to the industry average. 

While for-sale homebuilders had to employ generous incentives and price discounts to push sales during the early days of the spring selling season, AMH experienced record demand. The company doesn’t offer incentives for its rental properties and aims to match new deliveries with demand. 

“Seasonal demand picked up as expected in the back half of the first quarter, despite a slightly later start this year. This resulted in record leasing volumes for March and continued momentum through April,” Smith said. 

During the previous earnings call, AMH leadership stated they were prioritizing occupancy over rental rates, indicating they were willing to be flexible on pricing to achieve high occupancy. Now, the focus is on building momentum in both rate and occupancy, as occupancy typically moderates in the back half of the year. 

“We’ll take this first half of the year to capture as much rate and occupancy as we can. Then, as we’ve talked about in the past, we will control the controllables and hold as much of that occupancy as possible,” Palmer explained. 

What’s on the horizon?

The overhanging uncertainty caused by the proposed Section 901 of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act has already impacted the BTR sector. While the provision has generated uncertainty, AMH leadership notes that the supply picture, from their perspective, has improved. 

For now, there isn’t as much new construction happening in oversaturated Sun Belt markets, although it will likely take time for the supply-demand picture to fully correct itself. 

It’s not yet certain when or how the regulatory uncertainty will correct itself. For now, AMH is working to align new deliveries with demand, while selling off older, underperforming assets that no longer make strategic sense for the operator’s portfolio.