Corporate rentals in Boston tighten the market that much more

The hits just keep on coming for Boston tenants. The latest? An apparent rise in the number of corporate rentals.

Companies that specialize in providing short-term housing for visiting professional have been buying up chunks of apartment complexes and then renting them out almost like an extended-stay hotel.

What’s more, companies have bought these chunks in some of the city’s newer and better apartment projects, including the Kensington in downtown Boston and the Watermark Seaport in the Seaport District.

The loss of such apartments tightens the larger market for longer-term rentals that much more, and lower supply amid perennially brisk demand translates into—you guessed it—higher rents.

The city may do something to ebb the rise in corporate rentals, but for now that sector of the housing market remains “little-regulated,” per the Globe’s Tim Logan. It really is whatever company can afford to take the blocks of apartments and then turn them around as short-term rentals.

Stay tuned.

• Corporate rentals are complicating Boston’s housing market [Globe]
• Boston-area rents generally flat from May into June [Curbed Boston]