Units with at least three bedrooms barely edged
out two-bedroom for the ignominious title of largest
decrease in effective rent growth compared to last
year. A 79% decline brought rent growth from 5.6%
during the period last year to 1.3% this year. Due
to their small share of new units, there was no difference
between the market-level number and the
gain for these units in stabilized properties. One other
difference between this group and the others is
that whereas every other floorplan type exhibited a
noticeable move toward lease concessions, there
was only about a 5% increase in the availability of
new lease discounts for three-bedroom units.
Takeaways
Rent concessions have been on the rise across the
board, but especially for efficiency and two-bedroom
units. The increase for efficiencies could be
related to increasing discounts for lease-up properties
generally, but the increase for two-bedroom
units is something to keep an eye on.
Conventional wisdom has been that we may see
a shift in resident preference toward larger units or
units with an additional bedroom or den to convert
into a home office. Still less than six months into the
post-COVID-19 paradigm, it is still much too early to
know to what extent that shift will actually occur. So
far, no such shift is apparent in Greater San Antonio
based on rent and concession changes by floorplan
type.
Without the benefit of relatively large numbers of
new and expensive units to bolster average rent
growth, units with more bedrooms were harder hit
than efficiency and one-bedroom units in terms of
rent growth in recent months.
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www.saaaonline.org | SEPTEMBER 2020 SPECIAL EDITION 21