Corporate landlords Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities have officially merged to form the largest apartment real estate investment trust in the United States. This is no small thing: Equity and AvalonBay own thousands of apartments in major cities across the country, have delivered tens of millions in campaign cash to stop tenant protections in California, and have a track record of predatory business practices. So the merger could be a serious problem for tenants and activists.
The new company that’s been formed is called Vivmark Residential (click here if you want to know the meaning of Vivmark). It will have dual headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, and Chicago, Illinois, and Benjamin Schall, the one-time CEO of AvalonBay, will be the CEO of Vivmark. The mega-landlord now owns around 184,000 housing units across the United States, blowing past the former number one corporate landlord Greystar, which owns nearly 120,000 apartments.
The number of apartments Vivmark owns is important for a number of reasons.
First, by owning more apartments in a given city and state, Vivmark’s political power will increase in that city and state. So if housing justice activists want to push through pro-tenant legislation, Vivmark and its lobbyists will have a major say on the fate of that bill.
In addition, by owning more apartments in a given city, Vivmark will undoubtedly influence prices in that rental housing market. So if Vivmark decides to charge $3,500 per month for a one-bedroom in Boston, a lot of landlords – small and large – are going to follow Vivmark’s lead and charge sky-high rents, too.
Then there’s Vivmark’s political power in California.
Year after year, Equity and AvalonBay have been among the top contributors to political committees operated by the California Apartment Association, the powerful landlord lobbying group. Essex Property Trust, another big-time corporate landlord, is also a major contributor.
Each company has delivered tens of millions of dollars in campaign cash to the CAA, which then distributes corporate-landlord money to state and local politicians through campaign contributions. The political reach – and influence – of corporate landlords and the California Apartment Association is far and wide: Housing Is A Human Right revealed that the CAA gave corporate-landlord money to state and local elected officials in 51 out of California’s 58 counties.
One has to think, in California, that the merger between Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities has created a more politically powerful company in Vivmark Residential.
Which begs the question: Will Vivmark’s political influence grow in other states? And how will that impact tenants? Judging from the track records of Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities, Vivmark will aggressively try to stop tenant protections. Again, we can look at California.
Between 2018 and 2024, housing justice groups, labor unions, social justice organizations, and top civic leaders tried to reform or repeal statewide rent control restrictions in California through three separate ballot measures. Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities delivered tens of millions in campaign cash to the California Apartment Association to fund an expensive misinformation campaign that successfully killed those initiatives.
Also, Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities sent money to the California Apartment Association that was used to influence local elections in California cities. And the California Apartment Association, whose board of directors are executives from top real estate companies, will travel anywhere in California to stop the passage of tenant protections. That work has been funded by corporate landlords such as Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities.
With the Vivmark merger, tenants and activists in other states should expect the same kind of political engagement.
Before the merger, Equity owned apartments in New York City, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, San Diego, Orange County and the Inland Empire in California, Denver, Austin, Dallas, and Atlanta.
And AvalonBay owned rental units in Northern and Southern California, Colorado, Washington D.C., Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.
AvalonBay and Equity Residential both owned apartments in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County in California, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Boston, Seattle, Denver, Austin, and Dallas.
All of that adds up to the fact that the merger will probably impact California, Colorado, Washington D.C., Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Washington more than other states – for now. California will possibly be most impacted.
What will be the nature of those impacts? Predatory business practices have to be a serious concern, and, once again, we can look at Equity’s and AvalonBay’s track records.
Both corporate landlords have stirred up numerous controversies over the years, but there are two that are especially worrisome.
First, Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities have been involved in the ongoing RealPage scandal, in which corporate landlords used a RealPage software program to allegedly collude and wildly inflate rents. That’s illegal, and brought about numerous investigations, antitrust lawsuits, and a lawsuit by the Department of Justice and several state attorneys general. Two other lawsuits, one by the Washington D.C. attorney general and another by the New Jersey state attorney general, were filed against Equity and AvalonBay.
That’s a big deal.
Rather than allow the free market to dictate what rent prices they could charge tenants, Equity and AvalonBay allegedly tried to rig the market so they could charge higher and higher rents.
A few months ago, Equity Residential agreed to a $56-million settlement for a multi-district, class-action lawsuit involving the RealPage scandal.
The other red flag comes from a 2025 study by UCLA researcher Alexander Ferrer. He looked into landlords targeting Black tenants for eviction in the Los Angeles area, and identified the “surgical and deeply disproportionate eviction of Black tenants from neighborhoods with few Black residents.” Even worse, Ferrer found that “the largest corporate landlords – national real estate investment trusts – are central in the enactment of these eviction patterns in L.A.’s post-pandemic housing market.”
Ferrer revealed that the eviction practices of Equity Residential, AvalonBay Communities, and Essex Property Trust stood out among all other landlords in the L.A. area.
(Read: “Predatory Corporate Landlords Target Black Tenants for Eviction, Says New UCLA Study.”)
Clearly, federal and state politicians, as well as regulators and housing justice activists, must keep a close eye on Vivmark Residential’s business practices and its treatment of tenants.
Patrick Range McDonald is a veteran investigative reporter and the award-winning advocacy journalist for Housing Is A Human Right.