Before the pandemic, multifamily investment had been approaching a peak after a decade of expansion. In some markets, there was looming concern of a supply bubble and rent growth was beginning to slow to a crawl. After the disruption from COVID, there is now renewed enthusiasm for multifamily.

"There wasn't a primary concern that we were in a supply bubble, but I think that there was concern in certain submarkets that you might see some occupancy slippage," Blake Okland, head of multifamily and vice chairman at Newmark, tells GlobeSt.com. "There was a certain level of awareness. A year-and-a-half ago, there was a blinking light on some of these submarkets. Now, they are bursting at the seams."

The pandemic ignited several bubbling trends in multifamily, and that has shifted the market back into growth mode. This means demand for new supply and strong rent growth in both established and emerging markets. "There were remarkable stats in the second and third quarter of this year regarding lease trade outs, which are only possible when there is very low vacancy," says Okland.