Richard Ross, CEO, Quinn Residences

July 2026 — Invest: spoke with Richard Ross, CEO of Quinn Residences, about how the build-to-rent model is helping address affordability challenges in Tampa Bay while navigating excess supply, regulatory delays, and shifting resident expectations. “The mantra today, all over the country, but certainly in Central Florida, is affordability,” Ross said, underscoring the company’s focus on flexibility, maintenance-free living, and long-term demand in the region.

What external changes over the past year have had the greatest impact on Quinn Residences in Tampa Bay?

I would say that 2025 and really the first two months of 2026 have been a real challenge in terms of maintaining occupancy and rental rates, particularly in Central Florida and Tampa, because of excess supply. A lot of units were delivered in 2025, and anytime you have more competition, more units means more pressure on demand and on rents. People love our homes and what we offer residents, but if they suddenly have three different choices, it becomes harder to maintain rents and occupancy at the level you want. That has probably been the biggest challenge in 2025 and early this year, although we do see things improving, which is encouraging.

I would also say that construction has been affected by municipal delays. We have two communities underway in the Tampa area, and we have seen counties, cities, and municipalities create obstacles that slow down our ability to complete homes. Many times, those obstacles are not substantive. They are technicalities, but any delay in construction means that a particular home is not available for a resident to rent. The longer it takes to complete those communities, the harder it is for us to serve the market. So, excess supply is pressuring revenue, while municipal delays are holding back new inventory.

How have those market conditions shaped your approach to occupancy and pricing?

There is an ideal level of occupancy for us, which is between 90% and 95%. In a 100-home community, you want 90 to 95 of those homes occupied. As competition increases and new units come online, it gets harder to maintain that level.

If our rent is $2,200 a month and another new community a few miles away is offering $2,100 a month plus two months free, residents are often going to make that decision with their wallets. Even if we believe we provide a terrific resident experience, price competition matters. The challenge is keeping that resident in the home when there are aggressive concessions in the market.

That does not change our belief in the product. It just means we have to be disciplined and realistic about the environment. We know what residents value, and we stay focused on delivering that consistently.

How are you building the team needed to operate and scale these communities effectively?

We manage everything we own. We do not outsource that to a third-party property manager, so talent and culture are very important to us. As our footprint grows in Tampa and Central Florida, we add people locally because we want team members who know the area and understand the market.

Operationally, we use what I would call a hub-and-spoke model. We will have a larger community with an office, maintenance garage, and full operating base, and then that team will support three, four, or five communities within a certain radius. We typically have a regional manager overseeing that operation, and then we have resident service associates who handle leasing and help residents through the process. We also have maintenance professionals who make sure the homes are kept in excellent condition and that the maintenance-free lifestyle we promise is actually delivered.

Because we are hands-on operators, we can control the resident experience more directly, and I think that matters in this business.

What resident preferences and lifestyle trends are shaping the product you offer today?

What we offer is a three- and four-bedroom home, either a townhouse or a detached home, and we have a pretty clear sense of what people want today. They want brand-new homes. They want a two-car garage. They want a fenced backyard. Those features are very important, especially for families.

On top of that, technology has become a major expectation. Each of our homes includes a sophisticated technology package with Ring doorbells front and back, wireless locks, electronic thermostats, a security system, and leak detection. If your kitchen sink leaks, your washing machine leaks, or your water heater leaks, you get a notification. That level of technology is becoming part of the expected resident experience.

Community amenities also matter. At a minimum, you need a playground for children, a dog park for pets, and some kind of wet amenity such as a swimming pool, especially in Florida. You also need common areas where residents can gather.

In Florida, we have also had a lot of success with solar. All of our communities in Florida have solar panels on the roof. That is not just a green solution. It also helps reduce utility costs for residents. If a bill would normally be around $100 a month, solar can bring that down by roughly 20%. It is a savings, but it also gives residents another reason to feel good about living in the home. We also offer the option to install an electric vehicle charger in the garage for residents who need it.

How does build-to-rent help meet housing needs in a fast-growing market like Tampa Bay?

The mantra today, all over the country, but certainly in Central Florida, is affordability. If you compare one of our homes to owning the exact same home next door, with the same technology package, appliances, and features, renting from us in Tampa is about 52% cheaper on a monthly basis than owning that same home.

That difference comes down to mortgage rates, down payments, insurance, property taxes, and maintenance. We take care of those costs and responsibilities. If you own the home, you are carrying all of that yourself. So, build-to-rent is a much more affordable option for many households.

The other important point is that about a third of our residents do not ever want to buy a home, even if they could afford one. Many of them can, but they value two things. First, they want a maintenance-free lifestyle. They do not want to mow the lawn, fix the toilet, or handle those day-to-day responsibilities. They want to submit a request through an app and have the issue addressed. Second, they want flexibility. Someone may want to live in Tampa Bay for three or four years, but then move to Denver for a job or for family reasons. Renting gives them that freedom.

The broader challenge is that we simply have not built enough homes in this country since the financial crisis. Nationally, depending on whose data you use, we are short by roughly 4 million homes. That shortage is pushing prices up. Then you layer on mortgage rates, and it becomes even harder for a new family or first-time buyer to afford a house.

Florida has its own added challenges. Impact fees, red tape, and delays all increase the cost of delivering a home. The more fees and barriers that counties and municipalities put on building, the harder and more expensive it becomes. Then you add insurance costs because of the storms, and affordability becomes a real issue. Build-to-rent is helping address that gap by offering a high-quality option at a lower monthly cost.

What are the biggest barriers to creating more housing supply in Florida?

The biggest barrier is the accumulation of costs and delays that happen before you ever get to deliver a home. Impact fees, municipal requirements, technical issues, and permitting delays all add time and expense. Every time that process slows down, the cost of the finished home goes up.

That is a real problem, because the market already needs more supply. If you make it harder to acquire a lot and build a home, you are pushing affordability further out of reach. In Florida, you also have insurance costs weighing on the equation because of storm exposure. When all of those factors come together, they create a very difficult environment for expanding supply efficiently.

What are Quinn Residences’ top priorities in Central Florida over the next two to three years?

We have several communities under construction in Central Florida, and the first priority is to complete those and lease them up successfully. We would also like to do a lot more in Central Florida over time. While the competition in the market is real today, we think that period is going to end very soon.

A lot of the new homes creating competitive pressure right now are going to be delivered and occupied by midyear or late this year. There really has not been much started in the last two years. This is a business with a long lead time. From the moment we identify a piece of land to the time we deliver a home, it takes about three years. So, the supply you see today reflects decisions made years ago.

Once this current wave is absorbed, we feel very bullish on demand, particularly in Central Florida. You have strong economic growth, major drivers around Orlando such as Universal and Disney, and continued employment growth in Tampa. When you combine that with the long-term housing shortage and the affordability challenges in homeownership, we believe the outlook for build-to-rent remains very strong.

So, our focus is to finish what is underway, fill those communities, and position ourselves for growth. We are very bullish on the next two years.