Cerberus Capital Management is venturing in to the market of single-family homes to rent and plans to lend billions of dollars to investors too big for government programs, but too small to get Wall Street funding. 

Demand for properties is rising as investors seek to take advantage of home prices that are still 29 percent below the 2006 peak and to meet the unprecedented need for rentals from millions of homeowners who went through foreclosure and can’t get mortgages.