included Stone Oak – Sonterra , Northwest – Helotes , and East of Downtown – Inside Loop with more than 800 units each in this phase of the pipeline . All told , 16 of the 25 Greater San Antonio submarkets had at least one ongoing construction project at the end of the month - an indication that new supply will be more widespread in the near-term than it was over the last 12 months .
Pre-Construction
Projects in this group are those that are somewhere in the development process but haven ’ t broken ground . Because it ’ s possible to postpone or cancel these projects based on market conditions , they aren ’ t as relevant in the short-term from a supply perspective . However , they can provide some insight into the general expectations for a market . With more than 21,000 units , 60 % of the units in the construction pipeline fall into this category .
Takeaways
New supply is down considerably to start 2022 compared to recent years . It has been this reduction in deliveries that has shielded average occupancy to some degree in the face of negative net absorption so far for the year . Even so , average occupancy has fallen 0.5 % through the first four months of the year . With macroeconomic conditions becoming more tenuous and the construction pipeline expected to ultimately deliver more new units this year than last , occupancies may be pressured further as the year progresses .
The Downtown – Riverwalk area continues to be a focus for new development and more than 5,000 units were in the pre-construction phase to end April . The South Central submarket was a somewhat distant second with around 2,800 units having yet to break ground . The Greater New Braunfels and Boerne – Comfort regions are both set to see an uptick in development activity with about 2,000 and 1,700 pre-construction units , respectively . 21 of 25 submarkets for the area had at least one project planned for future construction within the next two years as of the end of April .
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