Mark Parrell

Mark Parrell runs one of the largest multifamily ownership companies in the United States. And it’s doing rather well, given tailwinds such as a housing shortage and higher homebuying costs. The company’s portfolio as of April included 312 properties and more than 85,000 apartments.

Unlike most of its top competitors in the heady realm of institutional multifamily ownership, Equity Residential is not agnostic when it comes to the asset class. Instead, it prefers to locate in major urban markets such as New York and San Francisco. Those two markets, in fact, accounted for roughly 30 percent of the real estate investment trust’s net operating income (NOI) in the first quarter of 2026.

Such markets provide a ready pool of tenants who are (a) usually priced out of the local for-sale market and (b) can nevertheless afford the high rents often found in major metros. It’s a not-so-secret sauce that Parrell acknowledged on the real estate investment trust’s earnings call in late April.

“Our substantial exposure to the well-performing San Francisco and New York markets drove operating performance in the first quarter that exceeded our expectations,” Parrell said. “These two markets are characterized by strong demand from our target higher-earning renter demographic for our well-located apartment homes and modest levels of new supply.”

The REIT’s first-quarter performance reflected these demographic and geographic advantages.  Equity Residential’s NOI clocked in at around $513.2 million, up from $505.1 million in the first quarter of 2025. Funds from operations and same-store revenue — returns from Equity Residential’s existing properties — were up 2.2 percent annually to $746.5 million.

As for the company’s appetite for expansion, it did not sell or buy any apartment assets in the first three months of 2026. It was a net seller in 2025, however, pocketing around $1.1 billion for the sale of 11 properties. Equity Residential purchased a further nine properties last year for $636.8 million.