Is it me or does $1B not seem like much? At an average cost of $75,000 per unit, they’ll have around 13,000 units. There are 126,000,000 units in the US, giving them 0.01% market share. That is absolute peanuts compared to large property developers.
Also, the article indicates that "the companies plan to acquire up to $1 billion in build-to-rent properties, starting in Atlanta."
So, in the grand scheme of themes (greater US) probably a drop in the bucket. But maybe it's a big deal when we only look at Atlanta.