INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A new report shows one out of every eight homes for rent in Indianapolis is owned by a big investment company.

Indianapolis has the eighth-highest percentage of homes owned by big investment companies of any city included in the study.

A professor at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business tells I-Team 8 that there are pros and cons to institutional investors owning so many homes on blocks around the city.

“People that need housing benefit, because they need housing, and some people aren’t equipped to own a home. They need people to provide maintenance support, and so forth like that,” said Doug McCoy, professor at IU Kelley School of Business.

The report does not draw a firm conclusion on if this trend is leading to skyrocketing rents.

Jill Naamane, director of financial markets and community investment at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, said, “Some of the studies we reviewed found that there were increases in rent in areas where there were a lot of investors that had enough market power in those areas to increase rent prices. But other studies found that there were not as clear of a connection on rental prices and the research is even less clear on other effects on renters.”

This issue dates back to the housing market collapse in 2008 when people had their homes foreclosed on; those big investors swooped in to buy them up.

“The big issue we’ve been really dealing with in housing markets is lack of supply and so this is a part of that,” McCoy said.

That lack of supply drives up the price of the available homes, which is good for current homeowners, but not ideal for people looking to buy their first home.

“If we want individuals to own homes and not just institutions to own homes, it might make you feel like, ‘Well, maybe this isn’t such a good idea for us to have these institutional investors competing with local buyers for home ownership,’” McCoy said.

Researchers found that people have been moving into nicer neighborhoods because of big investors owning homes in those areas.

Naamane said, “It could be that they could be moving into areas or neighborhoods that they wouldn’t have been able to afford to buy in.”

Going back to the report, could it sometimes be a good thing, especially if they have children, basically being able to go into a school district that would be better for their education?

“Correct, that could be one possible outcome,” Naamane said.

The U.S. GAO said it’s moving into Phase 2 of its project to specifically pinpoint what their findings mean, and the long-term impact of big investors owning more rental properties.