A new report from RealPage shows that apartment resident retention (renters electing to renew their lease after its initial term expires) hit an all-time high last year, with nearly 53% of renters choosing to renew their leases, reports HousingWire's Ben Lane.
According to RealPage’s report, apartment resident retention jumped to 52.5% last year, meaning that in the country’s 50 largest markets, when renters’ initial leases came up from renewal, 52.5% of them chose to renew. That’s an all-time high for resident retention rate, climbing from 51.7% in 2017, and besting the previous high, which was set in 2015.
The increase in renters staying in place is in spite of rents rising. According to RealPage’s report, the renters who chose to renew their leases did so at rents that were 4.5% higher on average than their initial rent.
So, people’s rent is going up by nearly 5%, but that’s not stopping them from staying in the same apartment. The figures probably come as a bit of surprise to some in the market, especially considering apartment construction was at a nearly 30-year high last year, but RealPage notes that there a number of factors at work here.
“For example, loss of renters to purchase ran below the historical norm, especially when interest rates inched ahead of year-ago levels, making purchase less affordable,” RealPage noted in its report. “Perhaps even more important to the renter retention stats, very tight occupancy in the apartment sector’s Class B and C product niches limited product availability for many households who may have preferred to move.”
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