As Rents Are On The Rise, So Are Apartment Sizes, Report Says

From Staff Reports

Back at the start of the last decade, the average apartment size in McKinney, Texas, was 937 square feet. And toward the end of the past decade, apartments in this Dallas-Fort Worth suburb were getting smaller — the average size was 20 square feet smaller.

But, after time trapped indoors with the walls closing in, as well as more and more Americans choosing to remain working at home, average apartment sizes are on the upswing. Units currently under construction in McKinney are now averaging a whopping 1,015 square feet.

That huge growth landed McKinney in the seventh spot behind Midland, Texas (No. 3) in RentCafe’s ranking of post-pandemic apartment growth.

In Texas, larger apartments are being built in seven cities: Midland (182 square feet), McKinney (98 square feet), Leander, San Antonio, Irving, Lewisville, and Houston. The state was also ranked as one of the best for teleworkers, according to a recent study, so renters working from home can look forward to finding larger apartments available in the near future. Good luck to them, because according to other reports, apartments themselves aren’t the only thing growing — rents are skyrocketing, too.

Out of the 92 cities in which RentCafe analyzed apartment floorplans in buildings under construction, 36 percent are already trending toward larger apartments compared to what was built in the past five years, Yardi Matrix data reveals. Specifically, these larger apartments increased by nearly 50 sq. ft., on average — a generous space for an apartment, especially nowadays when more people are working from home. 

So, what’s about 50 square feet in size?

A home office, that’s what.

Alex Valente, Senior Vice President for High Street Residential, said that their recently completed 318-unit multifamily community in Los Angeles includes intentionally designed larger apartments for Llewellyn to meet increasing demand for more space.

“At the time of design three years ago, this approach went against the grain of other developments in Downtown LA. The pandemic and resulting work-from-home model has only accelerated this trend and increased demand for more space. In addition to Llewellyn’s units being on average 20% larger than competitors, the unit mix is made up of 65% two bedrooms. This was done to allow renters to share the cost of living with a roommate or utilize a separate and private work-from-home space”, said Valente.

Is the search for larger, newer digs a direct result of the pandemic? That’s too difficult to tell. However, the growth of a demographic subset called “digital nomads” could be partly to blame:

Daryl Spradley, Senior Vice President of Charles Wayne Consulting, Inc. says that while some places experience an upsizing trend, it’s still too early to know for sure whether it’s an effect of the pandemic or not. He argues that this growth in size is triggered by developers who are addressing “renters by choice” and “digital nomads” — people with high income who choose not to buy, but to rent, due to various reasons linked to lifestyle, such as mobility.

“The number of people that earn over $100,000 a year is significantly higher than it was 2 or 3 years ago. Those are renters, but obviously renters by choice because they can go out and buy a house”, Spradley said.