Unlocking
Boundless Opportunities
Disrupting Inefficient Markets
Amherst is a vertically integrated real estate investment, development, and operating platform, offering solutions up and down the U.S. real estate capital stack, including single-family residential (SFR), mortgage-backed securities (MBS), and commercial real estate (CRE). Amherst is headquartered in Austin, TX and New York, NY, in the United States, with regional global offices located in India and Costa Rica.
Underpinned by proprietary technology, battle-tested data and mortgage model, and a deep understanding of U.S. real estate markets, Amherst’s vertically integrated platform seeks to provide investors a more efficient model to price, finance, and manage real estate with turnkey execution capabilities across the firm’s debt and equity strategies in the public and private residential, commercial, and mortgage-backed securities markets.
Amherst’s India business serves as an extension of the firm’s Merchant Banking division in the U.S., working across multi-disciplinary functional areas in close collaboration with U.S.-based personnel. The Merchant Banking division oversees investment management activities for Amherst, including the raising of new debt and equity capital, the formation of new ventures, the strategic acquisition and disposition of homes, and the management and operation of Amherst’s portfolio investments. The Merchant Banking business collaborates closely with the other Amherst business units, including the Development and Operator business units, as part of the fully integrated Amherst platform.
Our philosophy, best described as “housing as a service,” is illustrated by our vertically integrated capabilities. As Amherst continues to scale its single-family residential strategy, we look forward to expanding our global footprint in Mumbai, India, to support the acquisition, development, leasing, and management of the 40,000+ homes on our platform for the investors, residents, and communities we serve.Chris AvalloneHead of Merchant Banking
Meet the Executive Leadership
Sandeep Kabra
Head of India Operations, Merchant Banking
Lorelei Watts is Human Resources Director of Amherst’s India business, based in Mumbai, India. In this role, Lorelei is responsible for Amherst’s HR function in India, overseeing talent recruitment and retention, employee engagement, and organizational development.
Prior to Amherst, Lorelei served as Human Resources Director at Enfusion, where she developed and led the company’s Human Resources infrastructure and strategies, growing the organization by 300% during her tenure.
Lorelei holds a B.A. in Sociology from Mumbai University in Mumbai, India and is certified in Leadership and Change Management by XLRI, Jamshedpur.
Lorelei Watts
Human Resources Director, India
Lorelei Watts is Human Resources Director of Amherst’s India business, based in Mumbai, India. In this role, Lorelei is responsible for Amherst’s HR function in India, overseeing talent recruitment and retention, employee engagement, and organizational development.
Prior to Amherst, Lorelei served as Human Resources Director at Enfusion, where she developed and led the company’s Human Resources infrastructure and strategies, growing the organization by 300% during her tenure.
Lorelei holds a B.A. in Sociology from Mumbai University in Mumbai, India and is certified in Leadership and Change Management by XLRI, Jamshedpur.
Delivering Value
Residents
Our success centers around providing a high-quality home, delivering reliable maintenance and services, and earning the trust of our residents.
Investors
We value the trust our investors place in us, effectively stewarding their capital and providing transparency into our methods and results.
Communities
The effect of this investment and care ripples out into the surrounding neighborhood and community.
Evolving Our Platform
Amherst’s origins are rooted in a seemingly straight-forward, but ultimately complex question – how do you accurately price a portfolio of home loans?
Evolving Our Platform
Our playbook has been tried and tested across strategies and asset classes as we have built businesses in single-family residential, mortgage-backed securities, and commercial real estate lending. We continue to explore new strategies and asset classes so that we can achieve even greater impact for our investors, residents, and communities.
1993
Finding the Hard to Find
To accurately price one loan, we first needed to understand the entire market. We amassed hundreds of details on U.S. homes and borrowers to map relationships and predict behavior within the broader market context. Then, we scaled up our analytical infrastructure to efficiently assess the entire market and make real-time investment decisions.
2008
Navigating Crisis
The resulting data and analytics machine has allowed us to navigate risks and opportunities through changing market cycles. We were able to detect patterns in borrower behavior and housing fundamentals that would lead to the Great Financial Crisis in 2008-2009, ultimately steering clear of many issues and losses that plagued other mortgage market participants worldwide.
2012
Scaling the Hard to Scale
Emerging from the crisis, we anticipated that many Americans would need a single-family home in a good school district with the financial flexibility of a monthly rental payment instead of a 30-year mortgage. To meet this emerging demand, we began to buy and renovate homes and develop the in-house services needed to operate thousands of scattered-site single-family rentals across the U.S. As our residential portfolio and operations grew, we launched a commercial real estate lending business in 2016 to take advantage of market mispricing of risk by issuing transitional loans to creatively readapt existing assets.
Today
Charting New Paths
Our playbook has been tried and tested across strategies and asset classes as we have built businesses in single-family residential, mortgage-backed securities, and commercial real estate lending. We continue to explore new strategies and asset classes so that we can achieve even greater impact for our investors, residents, and communities.
Join us on our journey
