JLL Capital Markets senior director Jillian Mariutti-Nieder analyzes market uncertainty’s affect on U.S. business actual property.
Faux rental purposes are proliferating throughout the nation because the U.S. rental market has grow to be more and more unaffordable and aggressive.
Greystar, the nation’s largest condo landlord, informed FOX Enterprise that it has seen a transparent enhance in fraudulent purposes nationwide.
“Fraud in rental purposes has grow to be more and more refined throughout the business, with a number of the most superior instances involving AI-generated paperwork and fabricated payroll methods,” Greystar stated.
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A “For Lease” sign up entrance of a constructing within the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, DC, on Aug. 12, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs)
Eric Taylor, lead for belief and security at TurboTenant, a free on-line property administration platform, can be seeing an uptick, telling FOX Enterprise that just about 75% of condo homeowners throughout the nation reported a pointy rise in falsified purposes final 12 months, which is up about 40% on common.
“As rental costs rise, and reasonably priced housing stays scarce, scammers are getting extra refined. They’ve truly begun utilizing doctored pay stubs, faux employment letters and even AI-generated credit score profiles to qualify for luxurious residences they can not afford,” Taylor stated.
Nevertheless, Greystar observed that the exercise is prevalent in sure areas of Atlanta, together with Midtown, Downtown, and Buckhead, which is an space identified for high-end purchasing, eating and luxurious dwelling. In a few of these neighborhoods, the corporate found that round half of purposes have been flagged as fraudulent.
In different markets, akin to Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah; Portland, Oregon; Charleston, South Carolina; and Boston, Massachusetts, the share of faux purposes sometimes ranges between 14% and 18%, based on Greystar.
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Faux purposes typically have falsified or stolen data designed to misrepresent an applicant’s monetary or private background with the most typical varieties together with solid pay stubs, financial institution statements and employment verification letters. In some instances, folks create solely fabricated identities created utilizing stolen or manipulated private data.
Faux purposes typically have falsified or stolen data designed to misrepresent an applicant’s monetary or private background. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Photographs)
“This concern has grow to be extra prevalent as know-how has made it simpler to create convincing forgeries and as extra leasing processes have moved on-line,” Greystar stated.
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It’s a severe problem that Greystar stated it’s confronting by enlisting the assistance of a number of fraud detection suppliers. It is usually coaching its groups frequently and embedding superior verification instruments into our leasing course of to guard each residents and communities. Greystar has additionally applied a number of layers of verification to establish and stop fraud, defending each our residents and the integrity of the leasing course of.
The pattern comes because the U.S. housing market is going through an affordability disaster. (Al Drago/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs)
The corporate admitted that whereas no system is ideal, its strategy has “considerably lowered the variety of dangerous purposes” in communities.
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“These efforts defend residents, promote housing stability, and assist preserve the integrity of the rental course of,” the corporate stated.
The American Condo Homeowners Affiliation stated in a 2023 report that if a landlord discovers false data on a rental utility after a tenant has signed a lease, the tenant could also be topic to eviction and will even be required to go away the premises with out discover.
If somebody is evicted for mendacity on a rental utility, the judgment will seem on future credit score studies and background screenings, giving them points when filling out future purposes, the affiliation stated.
Taylor stated the surge in fraud has already led to larger eviction charges, inflated rents and monetary losses that ripple all through the rental market, affecting each landlords and sincere renters.
“The backlog in evictions and tenant safety legal guidelines imply many fraudulent tenants keep longer, compounding losses,” Taylor added.
