WASHINGTON, DC—Multifamily companies literally need to get ahead of themselves in order to keep pace with the disruptive forces at work across most if not all sectors, the National Multifamily Housing Council said Thursday. Historically slow to change, the apartment industry is especially at risk from disruption, according to a trends report the council released on the final day of its annual meeting, held in Orlando.

“The multifamily industry needs to catch up with the revolutions that are already well underway in everything from transportation and retail to demographics and psychographics,” says Rick Haughey, NMHC's VP for industry technology initiatives. “With a population that is aging and growing more diverse, which is impacting household composition, now is the time for our industry to adapt and build to meet the needs of the future.”

Just to keep up with the pace of demand, the industry will need to add at least 4.6 million apartment units by 2030. “However, anything being designed today won't see its first resident until the early 2020s, forcing the industry to become even more anticipatory, progressive and innovative when it comes to serving the next generation of renters' needs,” according to NMHC's report, titled Disruption: How Demographics, Psychographics, and Technology are Bringing Multifamily to the Brink of a Design Revolution. Twelve years from now, when those 4.6 million new units are presumably open for occupancy, “the world's likely going to be a much different place.”