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Morgan Stanley exec tapped to run single-family rental firm

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The former chief operating officer of Morgan Stanley has been named as the new president of one of the nation’s largest single-family rental businesses.

Jonathan Pruzan was tapped to replace James Gorman as a top executive of Pretium, a company with over $50 billion in assets under management. 

Pretium got its start in the wake of the Great Financial Crisis. It was founded in 2012 by Don Mullen, a former partner at Goldman Sachs, at a time when home values were poised to rebound from recession lows.

The company now owns and manages tens of thousands of homes and is one of the biggest operators in real estate’s newest asset class of single-family rentals.

Pruzan stepped down from Morgan Stanley at the end of January, according to a report from Reuters. He had served as COO since mid-2021. At the time, he was rumored to be a likely replacement for Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman, the outlet reported.

“I am extremely excited to be joining the firm and to work closely with [Mullen] and the entire team to capitalize on the tremendous opportunities ahead to grow the business,” Pruzan said in a statement.

Pretium picked up 2,000 homes from Zillow as the real estate portal closed up its iBuyer arm and liquidated the thousands of homes it owned, Reuters reported.

Investor activity picked up steam during the pandemic, as record-low interest rates fueled a home-buying frenzy from flippers and fix-and-hold operators.

Institutional buyers, like Pretium, rapidly pulled back after interest rates rose and home prices remained stubbornly high. Companies that own more than 1,000 properties bought 90 percent fewer homes in the second quarter of this year than they did in 2022, Inman reported last week.

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