Cost is only half of what makes a build-to-rent deal pencil. The other half is rent — and in 2026 that’s where most markets got scary. Here’s where Wichita sits:
Wichita rents grew while the national number turned negative. That’s not a fluke — it’s what a market with real affordability does when the frothy ones correct.
While the national rent story turned negative
Nationally, 2026 was the year the rent music stopped: single-family rent growth went flat to negative for the first time on record, dragged down by Sun Belt metros that overbuilt. Wichita ran the other way — average rent across all rentals up about 4.1% year over year to roughly $1,187 (Steadily, on November 2025 data), with a three-bedroom running closer to $1,267. It’s part of a broader pattern: the Midwest, not the Sun Belt, is where rents actually held in 2026.
Why Wichita’s rents have room, not froth
You don’t have to take a data provider’s word for any of this, and you shouldn’t. Third-party estimates for this market range from about $963 a month for apartments only to roughly $1,300 across all property types, depending on who you ask and what they sample. Our duplexes lease at roughly $1,600 a unit. That number isn’t an index — it’s a rent roll.
The affordability is the stability, not a weakness. Wichita’s average rent sits about 23% below the national average, housing overall runs roughly 28% cheaper than the U.S. average, and something like 73% of rentals are under $1,000 a month. That means renters here aren’t stretched to the breaking point the way they are on the coasts — so rents have headroom to rise without snapping the budget that pays them. With roughly a third of the market renting and a real shortage of new homes to meet growth, the demand under those rents is durable.
What it means for a build-to-rent deal
A yield-on-cost number has two inputs, and a soft rent market breaks the ones built on optimism. The deals cracking nationally were underwritten on rents rising 3 to 4% a year — and this year those rents fell. In Wichita, the rent side isn’t a bet, it’s closer to a floor: steady, growing, and affordable enough to stay that way. Put that on the cost basis we build to — roughly $108 a foot and a ~$29,000 land basis — and the 12 to 15% yield on cost holds because neither input is leaning on a hope.