New York hedge fund is the largest homeowner in Nevada's most populous county

New York-based hedge fund Pretium Partners is most likely the single largest homeowner in Clark County, according to an investigation of property records.

Pretium-owned Progress Residential, a homes-for-rent management company, owns at least 3,190 homes in the county as of the end of February, according to property record data confirmed by Clark County officials.

Pretium, a hedge fund with more than $55 billion in assets under management, declined to confirm the exact number of houses it owns in Clark County, but acknowledged the county’s tally is under 4,500 homes.

The exact number is difficult to track as its common practice for real estate investors to purchase properties via limited liability companies with varying names as Clark County identified at least five with the word “Progress” in it. It’s an issue that UNLV’s Lied Center for Real Estate wants to see corrected.

The Lied Center for Real Estate estimates that as of 2023, investors owned approximately 15 percent of the county’s housing stock and close to 25 percent in the city of North Las Vegas.

Other major homeowners in Clark County include Invitation Homes, FirstKey Homes and American Homes 4 Rent, according to Clark County property records.

‘Hollowing out our communities’

U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nevada, said institutional investment firms that own thousands of homes are destroying housing and homeownership opportunities for average citizens in his district and across the country. More than half of the homes owned by Progress are in his district, including the city of North Las Vegas.

Horsford previously introduced a Housing Oversight and Mitigation Exploitation Act in Congress which, in part, takes aim at large institutional investors like Pretium, looking first to address potential price manipulation and price gouging tactics for renters of these homes.

He said companies like Pretium are targeting starter homes and low-income communities where they can easily outbid locals and obtain vast quantities of properties, essentially commodifying the housing industry.

“These predatory practices led by these Wall Street backed hedge funds are acquiring more properties, pricing out Nevadans and their ability to own their own home and in my research we’ve found that even when people are renting out these homes, they’re gouging renters with higher prices and lowering the value for the entire neighborhood, causing instability.”

‘Working on creating more affordable housing’

In an email response to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a spokesperson for Pretium said they acknowledge the entire country is facing a housing shortage due to 15 years of underbuilding and that institutional investors have “stepped in” to provide liquidity post-recession to the homebuilder market at a time when banks are lending less. The spokesperson said Pretium believes it is “part of the solution” to the housing shortage.

“While our funds own less than 1 percent of single-family homes in Clark County, we are working on creating more affordable housing in the community — both by investing in the construction and renovation of housing stock and making quality rental homes available to working families in neighborhoods of opportunity,” read the statement.

Pretium further stated that the “firm is committed to providing well-maintained and affordable rental homes to our residents in Clark County” and that the company “continuously invests in the upkeep and improvement of our properties to ensure they meet high standards of quality and safety.”

The company’s website currently lists 180 condos and single-family residences available for rent ranging from $1,605 to $3,750 a month.

According to Zillow, the average rent in Las Vegas is $2,050.

Maurice Page, executive director of the Nevada Housing Coalition, said the continued expansion of corporate investors into the housing market is is both “unjust” and “unsustainable”.

“Nevada’s housing market is already volatile,” said Page, adding that the coalition advocates for regulations that limit how many homes corporate entities can acquire for rentals. “We want to ensure that more homes remain available for Nevada families not Wall Street investors. We also need greater oversight and transparency.”

Las Vegas home prices broke record highs to start the year as the homebuilding sector has slowed due to a number of factors, including a lack of land to develop as the federal government controls most of it in the valley and has been slow to release it. High mortgage rates have also created a “locking” phenomenon where homeowners are trapped in homes with ultra-low mortgage rates they secured during the pandemic.

Getting accurate data is ‘tricky’

Nicholas Irwin, a research director with UNLV’s Lied Center for Real Estate, said it is difficult to collect extensive data on companies buying homes in the county and thus their impact on the housing market.

“It’s tricky, (Pretium) could be the largest homeowner in the county, but the Secretary of State’s office doesn’t talk to the Clark County Assessor’s Office, so we just really don’t know,” he said.

It is common practice for real estate investors to purchase properties using different LLCs. Most of those LLCs are registered with the state’s Secretary of State’s office, but it’s still often hard to tell what investors the LLCs are linked to.

Irwin explained tracing homeownership on a large scale is something UNLV’s Lied Center for Real Estate has pointed out to the state Legislature previously.

“If we do think corporate ownership is an issue, we need to understand how many houses they own in the first place in this manner, which right now we do not know.”

Nevada’s Secretary of State did not respond to a request for comment from the Review-Journal. The Nevada Housing Division, which is a division of the Department of Business and Industry with the state government, declined to comment through a spokesperson for this article.

Page said government needs to start seriously considering this issue as a key driver of Nevada’s housing crisis as low-income residents continue to shoulder the biggest burden.

“Corporate rental companies must be held accountable through stronger public reporting requirements,” he said. “In neighborhoods where corporate rentals are concentrated, we see longtime residents priced out, shifting community dynamics and rising housing costs. This isn’t just a trend, it’s a crisis. Nevada’s housing market should serve its people first, not institutional investors looking to profit at the expense of working families.”

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