SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Fewer and fewer apartment residents are indicating intent to renew their leases. For the four quarters ending on March 31, 2012, only 58.5 percent of renters said they "definitely" or "probably" would renew, according to Kingsley Associates' latest resident survey results. This proportion has declined for five consecutive quarters and is 6.5 percentage points below the high of 65.0 percent observed less than two years ago.
This trend continued despite stabilization in overall resident satisfaction. For the period, 76.1 percent of residents rated their overall satisfaction as "excellent" or "good." While below the levels of satisfaction reported throughout 2009 and 2010, this figure has been fairly consistent for the past year.
"A lot of the positive news about multifamily real estate has focused on the limited number of units available to supply a larger number of renters," notes David C. Smith, COO, Kingsley Associates. "But demographic patterns of renters are also changing, and this will impact how residents make renewal decisions."
Indeed, the residents surveyed by Kingsley Associates over the past year tend to have higher incomes and are less likely to be living with children now than at any point during the previous three years. They are also much more likely to have been living in their apartment for more than a year. Such residents may feel that they have more flexibility to move. Some may be planning a return to being homeowners after a period of renting. Or perhaps these residents are simply less inclined to "tip their hands" when it comes to their upcoming renewal decision.
These findings and additional background are available in Kingsley Associates' Q1 2012 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 April 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012.
The most successful firms in real estate rely on Kingsley Associates for cutting-edge business intelligence solutions. Kingsley Associates is the leader in resident satisfaction surveys, tenant satisfaction surveys, client perception studies, strategic consulting and operations benchmarking.