Housing Market News: Most Wanted Apartment Amenities of 2024

Rental landlords may need to rethink their apartment amenities. In recent housing market news, a study by real estate software developer RealPage^® shows that tenants’ demands towards their rental landlords and property managers have started to shift.

Increasingly, tenants expect more modernization and automation from their apartment amenities—features they feel their apartments currently lack. Let’s break down the core findings below.

Main Takeaways

• 97% of renters prefer rental landlords and property managers who offer move-in support services (like help finding movers).
• 98% of tenants want their rental landlords to provide loyalty programs to offset the modern costs of living.
• 93% of renters would be happier if rental landlords offered bimonthly, biweekly, and weekly payments, rather than monthly ones.
• 97% of tenants desire automated digital services that allow for easier and quicker access to rental services.

Table of Contents

• Renters Want Services that Streamline the Moving Process
• Tenants Would Like Rental Landlords to Have Loyalty Programs
• Residents Desire More Flexible Payment Schedules
• Tenants Prefer Automated Services
• Analyzing the Study Findings

As one of the biggest property management companies in Northern Virginia, we can report the main findings of the 2024 National Multifamily Renter Study. In the survey results, over 2,000 apartment tenants across the country were surveyed, of all demographics aged 18-55.

Many of the results offer insightful resident retention ideas. Here they are, detailed below:

Renters Want Services That Streamline the Moving Process

In the survey results, 90% of renters stated they faced an exceptionally difficult time moving into their apartments. As a matter of fact, renters collectively cited moving as one of their most stressful life experiences, period.

Renters singled out three aspects of the moving process as especially anxiety-provoking. More specifically, they lamented about the lease agreement coordination process, the move-in documentation process, and the general need to juggle countless urgent priorities at once as major stressors.

Combined, all these factors are why 97% of renters prefer renting from rental landlords with apartment amenities that streamline moving. Some of these services include help getting internet and utilities set up, getting payments set up, and securing a mover.

Tenants Would Like Rental Landlords to Have Loyalty Programs

98% of renters want their rental landlords to provide a loyalty program for getting the rent in on time. However, just 16% of respondents said that their rental landlords offer such apartment amenities.

This is a glaring missed opportunity. Amazingly, a whopping 97% of tenants noted they would be more likely to renew their lease if their rental landlords had this program. And they noted that this isn’t some exorbitant, unrealistic ask—96% of renters had memberships to at least one loyalty program.

In other words, loyalty programs are very common, and consumers have come to expect them from their businesses nowadays.

Furthermore, renters want specific types of rewards, ones that have applicable cash value in their daily lives. For instance, they look towards credit to use for future rent payments, groceries, gas, and personal care.

Residents Desire More Flexible Payment Schedules

Across all surveyed age groups and income levels, 93% of respondents said they wanted to pay the rent on a flexible schedule, not once a month. To clarify, they noted they preferred bimonthly, biweekly, and weekly, rent payment schedules, rather than monthly ones.

When you think about it, this makes sense. As the survey states, rent is most renters’ single biggest monthly expense. And that’s not all they have on their plate.

Renters also must contend with credit debt on top of that. As a matter of fact, 85% of tenants have to make regular debt payments. 40% hold credit card debt.

All this helps explain why their financial standing may wax and wane throughout the month, from month to month. As such, flexible payment schedules can be critical apartment amenities that meet tenants where they are. As a result, rental landlords may find that this helps them get the rent more consistently.

Tenants Prefer Automated Services

Renters stated that they want their rental services to be more streamlined and seamless, technology-wise.

To expand on this statement, 97% of tenants stated they would more likely renew their lease if working with their rental landlords was as easy as using Amazon services. What’s more, they stated that this can heavily factor into their choice of apartment and decision to renew or not.

They observed that all-in-one digital portals, like apps, would be especially helpful. This way, they can go through many tasks with a swipe of their finger, anytime, anywhere.

Analyzing the Study Findings

All in all, the 2024 National Multifamily Renter Study shows that tenants want rental landlords to modernize their apartment amenities.

We can see that the industry needs to carry over modern staples such as digital apps and loyalty programs into its businesses.

Moreover, the industry must adapt to tenants’ modern financial and material realities, such as having more expenses to shoulder and less time to handle rental stressors like moving.

The bottom line is that we live in a seemingly busier, more chaotic, and more demanding world than ever. Tenants want to make sure that their rentals adjust to that.

As such, landlords in need of solid resident retention ideas must focus on easing those burdens, or at least not adding to them. In essence, they should offer as convenient and easy an experience as possible. If they fail to do this, they may need to grapple with the costs of tenant turnover.

On that note, if you want support in meeting tenants’ increased demands for apartment amenities, we can help.

For instance, we can coordinate movers for your tenants’ move-in process. We also can assist you in developing loyalty programs, flexible payment programs, and other resident retention ideas so they don’t cut into your ROI.

On the digital side, we even have cohesive digital portals for both tenants and property owners alike. Otherwise, we can handle traditional landlord nuisances, like tenant screening, marketing, accounting, legal compliance, and more. Contact us today to let us handle it all for you.