Equity LifeStyle Properties, which owns manufactured housing communities, RV resorts and marinas, expects to raise manufactured home site rents by about 5.1% in 2027. The company disclosed the preliminary assumption with its third-quarter results, released Oct. 20, 2026. In the quarter, base rent from its core manufactured home portfolio rose 5.7%, while short-stay RV income kept shrinking.
The Chicago-based REIT (NYSE: ELS) said it expects to send 2027 rent increase notices to about 50% of its manufactured home residents by the end of October. It has already set rates for more than 95% of its annual RV sites, with a preliminary 2027 annual RV rent growth assumption of about 4.7%. Those assumptions exclude any income from additional sites that become occupied next year.
Equity LifeStyle third-quarter results
Normalized funds from operations (FFO), the earnings measure REITs commonly use that strips out real estate depreciation and certain one-time items, came to $0.79 per share. That was up 4.6% from $0.75 a year earlier and at the midpoint of the company’s $0.76-to-$0.82 guidance range.
The headline numbers were lower. Net income per share fell 11.1% to $0.45, and unadjusted FFO fell 6.1% to $0.72. Both figures include a $12.1 million deferred tax valuation allowance booked in the quarter. Total revenue was $409.9 million, up from $393.3 million in the third quarter of 2025.
The core portfolio, meaning properties owned and operated in both periods, posted a 4.4% increase in property operating revenue. Operating expenses, excluding property management, rose only 1.3%, which lifted core income from property operations 6.7% to $217.5 million. Within expenses, the “insurance and other” line fell 8.8%, while real estate taxes rose 6.3% and repairs and maintenance rose 4.9%.
Manufactured housing: rents up, occupancy a bit lower
Core manufactured home base rental income rose 5.7% to $198.6 million, which the company said was 0.1 percentage point above the midpoint of its prior guidance. Monthly base rent averaged $963 per site, compared with $912 a year earlier.
Occupied core sites rose by 99 during the quarter to 68,810. Average occupancy, however, was 93.8%, down from 94.3% a year earlier, while the number of core manufactured home sites rose to 73,311 from 72,801.
The company said new and used home sales totaled 244 in the quarter. Across its total portfolio, new home sales fell to 97 from 119 a year earlier, and used home sales rose to 148 from 129. The company is also renting out more homes. Its core portfolio had 2,274 occupied rental homes at the end of September, up from 2,091, and rental operations revenue rose to $10.3 million from $9.1 million.
Manufactured housing has drawn more policy attention this year, including a HUD plan to modernize its federal construction code. Equity LifeStyle’s results show the landlord side of the sector. Its manufactured home sites are generally leased on an annual basis to residents who own or lease factory-built homes, and it has been raising rents on those sites at a mid-single-digit pace.
RV: annual guests up, short stays down
The RV and marina business is showing a split. Core RV and marina base rental income rose 2.1% to $113.1 million. Income from annual sites, where customers stay year-round, climbed 5.3% to $82.8 million. Seasonal income fell 4.4% and transient income fell 5.8%. Together, seasonal and transient revenue fell 5.6% to $30.3 million.
For the first nine months of the year, the gap is wider. Seasonal and transient revenue fell 9.3% while annual RV income rose 5.0%. Annual membership subscriptions, sold through the company’s membership campground network, rose 8.4% in the quarter and 10.2% year to date.
The company also trimmed its full-year 2026 growth midpoint for core RV and marina base rental income to 1.2%, from 1.6% in its July 22 guidance.
Guidance narrowed, payout higher
Equity LifeStyle kept its full-year normalized FFO midpoint at $3.18 per share and narrowed the range to $3.15 to $3.21. For the fourth quarter it guided to normalized FFO of $0.78 to $0.84. It also kept its 5.7% full-year growth midpoint for core manufactured home base rent. Rival Sun Communities beat its own guidance in the second quarter.
The quarterly dividend stood at $0.5425 per share, up from $0.515 a year earlier. Total debt was about $3.33 billion at the end of September, or 4.3 times trailing adjusted EBITDAre (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for real estate, adjusted for certain items).
As of Sept. 30, the company owned or had an interest in 453 properties with 173,623 sites in 35 states and British Columbia. That includes about 75,900 manufactured home sites and roughly 26,000 membership campground sites used by about 107,400 members. More REIT coverage is in our commercial real estate section.
