5 Ways in Which Millennials Are Redefining the Multi-family Housing Market

Millennials—those born between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s—are very influential in the real estate sector. While many lead a single lifestyle, they are also the most likely group to be having babies right now. As they have to survive in today’s economic climate they will often choose to live in multi-family housing, and anybody working in that sector must keep in step with their needs. Millennials are often waiting longer to purchase a home, so the multi-family rental market is highly aimed toward this generation.

More Space

Millennials face a problem. Not only have rent prices and property prices increased but that apartment sizes have actually been getting smaller, RENTCafe data reveals. From 2008 to 2018, average studio and 1-bedroom apartment sizes decreased from 573 square feet to 514 square feet and from 790 to 757 square feet, respectively. This has meant that in order to find affordable space for their growing families Millennials have been looking for properties further out of town, or in cities with lower prices. Real estate agents specializing in this area may find the market widening, while multi-family constructors may feel encouraged to build properties for young families in areas they wouldn’t have considered in the past.

More Features

Millennials can be quite demanding—as maybe you’d expect from people who claim they have to work harder than previous generations and yet pay more for their accommodation and live further out of town! Some of the things they want in their rentals are top-quality washers, dryers, refrigerators and dishwashers. To keep themselves and their families secure they often like to see security guards on the premises. Luxury goods and extra staff on the payroll can be expensive, but providers of multi-family housing would do well to pay attention to these demands: this age group is one of the most populous generations in US history, their spending power will increase, and they and their children can be valuable clients.

More Fitness

In addition to all this, Millennials demand a lot from themselves, hoping that whatever place they live in provides recreational facilities where they can work out and perhaps participate in fitness classes. And by doing this Millennials have another way to be with other people like themselves: enjoying exercising together, performing aerobics to the same music, relaxing afterward in the same lounge area, and so on. To provide facilities that ensure 20- and 30-somethings can keep themselves in top condition, multi-family housing developers need to take these demands into account when starting future projects, and agents will find them to be great selling points.

More Online Shopping

Millennials grew up with the Internet and like few things better than being online—but some of those activities have knock-on effects. Online shopping—an attractive option as actually going out to shop eats into valuable time that could be spent at the office or the gym—results in Items that have to be delivered, and residents won’t always be at home to receive them. A concierge employed by the building will take delivery, but this adds to the service charge. A new idea Millennials are sure to like is the e-commerce locker, which can be installed in a common area and in which deliveries can be deposited—Amazon’s ‘Hub,’ for example, serves this purpose—and having one in a building could be a great selling point.

More Storage

Millennials are young and inventive, finding solutions to the issues they face. One way they can compensate for smaller living quarters is to use the increasing number of self-storage options available to house items that can’t be accommodated at home—sensible decluttering goes hand-in-hand with this. The storage industry has grown a lot in recent years and facilities can be found both in city centers and out-of-town with units at a range of prices. This growing need for extra space is one of the reasons why self-storage is expected to remain strong and an attractive investment option for many real estate investors.

Multi-family housing providers find themselves in changing times, and as some of their most valued tenants and potential buyers are looking at new ways to live well, they must adapt to accommodate them. Real estate brokers will discover these changes as quickly as anybody. And this situation may be positive for builders of multi-family housing, who can now consider smaller apartment sizes and new areas as being suitable for this most important of generations.