WASHINGTON, DC–We can scrap the talk of the apartment market becoming over-saturated — at least in the long term. A new report has determined that the US will need to build more than 4.6 million new apartment homes across a range of price points by 2030. This is according to research from Hoyt Advisory Services, which was commissioned by the National Multifamily Housing Council and the National Apartment Association.

As for the market becoming over-saturated in the immediate term, we can nix talk about that as well, per the report. It has found that currently nearly 39 million people live in apartments, and the apartment industry is quickly exceeding capacity.

In fact we can rewrite the entire narrative that the multifamily sector is in danger of being overbuilt. The research has found that it will take building an average of at least 325,000 new apartment homes every year to meet demand; yet, on average, just 244,000 apartments were delivered from 2012 through 2016.

Economic Impact

This is important on many levels. One, it is welcome news to the CRE industry, which has been listening to and wondering about the steady drumbeat of warnings about the apartment sector. Two, apartment growth has wider implications for the whole US economy.