We are partnering with Multi-Housing News each month to look at what apartment renters say they want. In January, we dug into our database of resident survey data and looked at technology wish lists. Online rent payment is a common (and maybe predictable) item, but there was a lot of diversity in the responses. One resident in Chicago said this: “If we had known about the inability to get cell phone reception in our apartment, we would not have made the decision to move in.”

February’s topic was bathrooms. More electrical outlets? A separate entrance from the hall instead of a bedroom? Residents mentioned both. Also on the bathroom wish list: “I’d love to see a dog bath area—it’s hard to wash my pup in the bathtub.”

To see more about the potentially surprising items on apartment renters’ wish lists, check out the technology and bathroom features on www.multihousingnews.com. Also, be on the lookout for March’s feature on fitness centers.

Tags: Multi-Housing News, multifamily, resident surveys

Kingsley Associates released its Q4 2011 Multifamily Industry trends analysis today, which revealed a continuation of a downward trend in resident loyalty. The full text of the press release appears below. (To download a PDF, click here.)

Kingsley Associates Releases Fourth Quarter Multifamily Industry Trends

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Latest Survey: Renters’ Renewal Intent Falls Below 60%

(SAN FRANCISCO–January 25, 2012) Apartment resident renewal intent continued its downward slide during Q4 2011 as the year ended with only 59.5 percent of renters indicating they “definitely” or “probably” would renew their lease. This figure, based on Kingsley Associates’ latest resident survey results, represents a new three-year low and is down from a high of 65.0 percent reported as of June 30, 2010.

While renewal intent trended down in 2011, overall resident satisfaction remained stable.  For the most recent four quarters, 76.2 percent of residents rated their overall satisfaction as “excellent” or “good,” compared to 76.3 percent for the prior period and 76.0 percent at the end of Q2 2011.

“In many ways, multifamily real estate has led the economic recovery,” comments John Falco, Principal, Kingsley Associates. “As renters themselves recover, there are indications that more of them are renting by choice. They aren’t unhappy – just choosy.”

Three observed trends support the hypothesis that more residents are choosing to rent in multifamily housing rather than enter (or re-enter) the ownership market:

1.  As of the end of 2011, 45.9 percent of surveyed apartment residents indicated that they live alone, an increase of over 2 percentage points from earlier in the year.
2. Residents 55 and older now make up 13.4 percent of surveyed renters, compared to 12.6 percent for the period ending in Q2 of 2011.
3. For the first time in recent memory, households with incomes $75,000 or more now comprise a greater share of surveyed renters (32.0 percent) than those earning less than $40,000 (30.7 percent).

These and other findings are available in Kingsley Associates’ Q4 2011 Multifamily Trends.

Kingsley Associates surveys in excess of 1 million apartment units annually on behalf of its clients. The findings outlined above are based on survey responses received between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011.

Tags: multifamily, real estate industry trends, resident surveys

Our resident survey research shows that residential renters’ intent to renew is at its lowest point since Q4 of 2008. It is down from last quarter across most major markets, with Washington, DC being a notable exception. Kingsley Associates COO David C. Smith offers some commentary in this press release. Twelve consecutive quarters of data are also available in the underlying data set.

Tags: David C. Smith, multifamily, resident surveys

Each quarter, Kingsley Associates releases its Multifamily Industry Trends. Here are a few highlights, based on surveys conducted at over 800,000 apartment units in the four quarters ending in June of 2011:

• After peaking in the middle of 2010, resident satisfaction and renewal intent continued to trend downward
• Residents in Chicago reported the highest level of satisfaction of any major market
• Community management was as big a factor as apartment features/finishes for residents unlikely to renew their leases

Tags: CRE, multifamily, real estate industry trends, resident surveys

Kingsley Associates’ John Falco will lead an interactive panel discussion titled Managing the Resident Experience at the National Apartment Association (NAA)’s Education Conference in Las Vegas on Friday, June 24th at 8:30 am. This session will focus on the ever-increasing sophistication of resident feedback programs. Kingsley will be joined by industry heavyweights AvalonBay, UDR and Milestone to share real-life examples of strategic choices driven directly by the collective voice of the customer. Panelists will share their insights and experiences on such topics as:

•           The importance of obtaining resident feedback

•           Building company-wide buy in for your feedback program

•           The right survey methodology (it’s not the same for everybody!)

•           How to integrate resident feedback into operations

•           Using the right internal and external benchmarks

•           Setting internal goals and developing reward systems

•           Understanding shifting resident needs / perceptions

•           Supply / demand in the world of customer service delivery

Please join us in Las Vegas as we share the latest cutting-edge resident research and industry best practices.

Tags: John Falco, multifamily, National Apartment Association, resident surveys

On the surface, much of what leads residents to lease an apartment is intuitive. The location of the apartment community, the functionality of the unit, the rent – these are obvious. Furthermore, it stands to reason that these primary decision drivers wouldn’t change all that much based on the demographics of a particular resident (the resident’s age, for example).

In fact, Kingsley Associates’ recent research bears this out. The first chart below displays the top four initial lease decision factors, as indicated by respondents to Kingsley Associates’ surveys in the past year. Each is described as a “high” or “very high” priority by well over 75% of residents, and there is no appreciable difference across age groups. One interesting note is that of these, only the rental rate is truly variable in the short term, and with the increasing prevalence of revenue management software, even that may not be terribly flexible.

But a deeper look into the secondary factors that underlie the leasing decision uncovers a different story. Not only are the items in the chart below more actionable by community staff, but they also vary a great deal depending on the age of the new resident in question. Community staff / management leads this list, and the impression they convey is especially important to older residents. Not surprisingly, online rating feedback resonates particularly strongly with younger residents (for more on this hot topic, see “Wrestling with Online Apartment Ratings Services“). What may be surprising is that the reverse is true when it comes to “green” or environmentally sustainable practices: the importance of this increases with the age of the resident.

The central message, then, is twofold. First, apartment staff can only focus on what is actionable, and that means largely themselves! Second, once the basics are covered, knowing what your specific target market wants is critical in crafting the right message to close new leases.

Tags: multifamily, real estate industry trends, resident surveys

Kingsley Associates has just released our stats on apartment resident perceptions for Q2 2011. Among the interesting items in the slides linked below:

• Overall resident satisfaction appears to have peaked in Q3 2010; about 1.5% fewer residents report their satisfaction as “good” or “excellent” for the four quarters ending in Q1 2011
• Similarly, likelihood of renewal is down 2.8% from its recent high in Q2 of 2010
• In Q3 2009, 51.0% of residents had lived in their apartment for a year or more; that number climbed as high as 54.5% in Q3 of 2010, but has now declined to 52.7%

For more detail and additional insights, click the image below to download our Q1 2011 Multifamily Trends.

Tags: multifamily, real estate industry trends, resident surveys

The May issue of the National Apartment Association (NAA)’s UNITS magazine is now available, and Kingsley Associates is proud to be well represented in its pages:

• In the feature article “Selling the Lifestyle,” Kingsley’s Phil Mobley zeros in on how industry players like AMLI Residential, AvalonBay Communities, Gables Residential and UDR are using their brands to build resident loyalty among the mobile, online generation.
• Then, within “Go Ahead, Check Our Ratings,” a sidebar references Kingsley’s research on the validity of online apartment rating services.
• Finally, the issue contains a formal announcement of the 2011 NMHC 50, conducted by Kingsley Associates in partnership with the National Multi Housing Council.

In the coming weeks, be on the lookout for more multifamily industry trends from Kingsley Associates, including some nuggets of wisdom from our own research and a report from John Falco’s session at the 2011 NAA Education Conference & Exposition.

Tags: apartmentratings.com, John Falco, multifamily, National Apartment Association, NMHC, Phil Mobley, real estate industry trends, resident satisfaction, resident surveys, UNITS Magazine

For the second year in a row, Kingsley Associates has partnered with the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) to conduct its annual NMHC 50 survey, which recognizes the largest apartment owners and managers in the United States. The full press release is available on the NMHC’s website, as are the lists of the top 50 owners and managers for 2011. The results are also published in the April issue of National Real Estate Investor.

Click here to view the 2011 NMHC 50 (Image courtesy of National Real Estate Investor)

Tags: CRE, multifamily, NMHC, real estate industry trends

Kingsley Associates and Institutional Real Estate, Inc. (IREI) recently wrapped up our 15th Annual Plan Sponsor Survey. This survey addresses the real estate investment plans of North America’s largest tax-exempt institutional investors and is discussed everywhere from the National Multi-Housing Council (NMHC) to the Wall Street Journal.

Here are a few highlights from this year’s results:

• After a two-year hiatus, real estate has resumed its place atop the list of asset classes in terms of delivering the highest expected risk-adjusted returns (compared to U.S. stocks, foreign stocks, fixed-income, and venture capital / private equity investments)
• Investor real estate holdings are significantly below “target” allocations
• Within real estate, multifamily is by far perceived as the most attractive property type for investment
• Investors report a significant backlog of uncalled prior commitments to real estate managers
• Investors in aggregate anticipate $30 billion in new capital allocations to real estate in 2011, half of which will target value-added and opportunistic private equity strategies

To purchase the full report, please visit http://www.irei.com/.

Tags: capital flows, IREI, Jim Woidat, pension fund investing, plan sponsor, real estate, real estate investing