HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – The Houston apartment market rebounded rapidly from the pandemic era with a 5 percent gain in rents and the highest occupancy rate in two years, according to a Houston-based multifamily consultancy.
With economic growth in Texas pushing the recovery ahead, empty apartments are being filled. In June, absorption of Houston apartment remained above 5,000 units for the third month in a row, according to a new report by ApartmentData.com.
The Houston area apartment occupancy rate jumped to 90.7 percent in June, up from 88.4 percent in June of 2020.
The sudden and remarkable improvement has not gone unnoticed by multifamily professionals and investors.
“In the last 90 days, interest in Houston multifamily has spiked considerably from where it has been for the past 24 months,” said Chip Nash, senior vice president for Colliers in Houston and director of multifamily investment properties in a Colliers multifamily report.
“Investors are anxiously searching for opportunities to invest their equity, and the market has responded with numerous new offerings. Contrary to the previous 12 months, investors now have multiple opportunities to consider, spurring spiked pricing and pushing cap rates to lower numbers than those seen at the beginning of 2021.”
“We expect sales volume to continue to increase as investors are priced out of buying opportunities in other areas, both nationally as well as within the State of Texas,” Nash wrote.
Developers are active in Houston. Some 59 apartment complexes are under construction and will bring 15,981 new units to the market pretty soon, ApartmentData.com reports. That comes on top of 86 communities with 23,431 units that were added to the Houston inventory in the last 12 months.
How big is Houston’s apartment supply? Answer: Space City has 2,942 apartment complexes with a total of 693,000 units, reports ApartmentData.com.
July 6, 2021 Realty News Report Copyright 2021
Photo: Courtesy 29th Street Capital
For more about Texas development, check out the book Houston 2020: America’s Boom Town – An Extreme Close Up by Ralph Bivins. Available on Amazon http://tiny.cc/4a2g6y
File: Houston Apartment Market Explodes: Rents Up 5 Percent
File: Chip Nash. Colliers. Houston Apartment Market Explodes: Rents Up 5 Percent. ApartmentData.com