American Homes 4 Rent, a real estate investment trust, announced plans to raise US$793 million from an initial public offering of common shares. American Homes 4 Rent common shares were priced at US$16 and US$18 per share. American Homes joins the list of REITs and home builders who are going public, taking advantage of the upswing in the housing market industry. The company plans to sell an estimated 44.1 million common shares. The company announced that they will use the proceeds from the offering to acquire single-family properties and to  repay company debt.

American Homes 4 Rent owns 14,210 single-family homes as of the end of April and  is planning to put in an additional 1,425 properties, which it expects to acquire, The company said that it is looking into buying foreclosed homes and to rent them out. American Homes plan to take advantage of the rising rents in the recovering U.S. housing market. Large institutional investors such as the Blackstone Group, Colony Capital and American Homes 4 Rent plans to invest up to US$10 billion in the next two years to invest in single family homes.

Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo Securities, JP Morgan and BofA acted as the lead book runners for the American Homes 4 Rent IPO.