MIAMI—Niido, a new homesharing concept launched in partnership with Airbnb, has gotten a boost: Brookfield Property Partners is investing $200 million, with an initial investment of $20 million in the first Niido property in Kissimmee, FL. Additionally, Silverpeak Real Estate Partners has committed $20 million of equity to Niido’s real estate venture.
The equity investment program is aimed at acquiring and developing multifamily residential buildings branded “Niido Powered by Airbnb” in Florida as well as major cities in the U.S. The deployment of capital is expected to be completed over the next several years.
On a conference call, Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s head of global policy and public affairs, said, “It’s creating a new kind of apartment built around a community philosophy. These apartments are designed to be primary residences for long-term rentals, but they’re targeted to tenants who travel and want to easily share their home when they’re away. Look at how the workforce is evolving and the economic burdens—this is going to where the world will be shortly.”
The new apartment communities, part of the first co-branded partnership with Airbnb, will be optimized for homesharing and flexible living. All apartments will be leased on an annual basis as primary residences, and then the residents will have the opportunity to rent their units through Airbnb for up to 180 days per year. The Niido app is integrated with Airbnb and supports tenants and their guests with calendar management, amenity booking and keyless entry.
Harvey Hernandez, CEO of Niido, noted that the investments “further our ability to scale quickly. We believe this combination is incredibly powerful, and we look forward to building communities to enhance the way people live and travel.”
Lehane added that this evolution in housing comes in part becomes of the specific challenges millennials face. “They’re using Airbnb as hosts, making their homes available because we offer a powerful way to generate supplemental income for a generation that faces significant economic challenges,” he said. “Student debt for millennials has exploded in the past decade, reaching a historic share of household debt. Many millennials struggle to afford the high cost of housing. We have an analysis out there that says 46% of millennials in the U.S. who rent their homes are rent burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent.”
This has led, he said, to growing support from the housing industry “which sees homesharing as a way to attract new tenants, tracking to the fact that those millennials will be 75% of the consumers.”
“When we look at what the future of housing looks like, it has to incorporate what this next generation of consumers are facing, what their economics look like and how we ultimately create models to address that,” Lehane said.