Pre-construction
Under Construction
Construct ion/Lease-up
Lease-up
Monthly New Units vs Net Absorption
2000
PAC
1500
1000
500
San Antonio Apartment Association
0
-500
42736 42826 42917 43009 43101 43191 43282 43374 43466 43556 43647 43739 43831
New Units
Absorption (units)
tion activity will be more dispersed than it currently is. As
previously mentioned, only twelve of the 25 San Antonio
submarkets have units currently under construction, but
that figure rises to 16 when looking at projects that have
yet to break ground.
Takeaways
The San Antonio market has added just under 25,000
new conventional units in the last five years and there
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are another 19,000 units in the construction pipeline.
While demand has not been up to the task of absorbing
100% of the new units, it has been enough to prevent a
regression in average market occupancy.
Rent concessions have made something of a comeback
recently with availability increasing from 30% of conven-
tional properties offering a discount in January of 2019
to 39% to end January 2020. However, the average con-
cession value has decreased slightly and currently sits at
three weeks off a 12-month lease. It’s worth noting that
although net absorption has been negative in two of the
last three annual periods for stabilized properties, aver-
age occupancy has remained stable. In other words, the
new properties that have come online in recent years
are not relying on cannibalizing existing properties in or-
der to reach stabilization themselves.
Population and job growth continue to be strong in San
Antonio, which makes the slight net absorption lag less
concerning. The volume of new supply may pressure av-
erage occupancy in the short-term after introduction
but given that more that almost 40% of pipeline units are
in the pre-construction phase, San Antonio retains flexi-
bility not found in some other markets.
www.saaaonline.org | March/April 2020
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