Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, many companies were forced to have employees work from home. This has created a precarious situation for a lot of people. Some companies have decided to stay with a completely remote work plan, others have chosen to do a hybrid situation, while a few have decided to go back to pre-pandemic life and do full time back in the office hours.
With this new approach to working many people are looking at alternate options for living if they don’t own a home. According to a study done by Brivo, a whopping 78% of people prefer to work from the comforts of their own home instead of an office.
This means that people who would normally prefer a one-bedroom apartment may now want a two bedroom apartment. But this also means that it is going to allow for people to have more freedom to live other places because they won’t be tied down to one location because of a job location. This allows for more people to travel, which can mean a short-term lease at an apartment.
How does this have any correlation with the multi-family market though? Well, with the abundance of people who are cutting down on commuting costs because they are working from home, they are now able to afford bigger and nicer places or a place in general. Commuting costs range from between $8,000-$10,000 a year for average Americans, this is roughly 19% of most Americans annual income. With the extra money that they will be saving by not having to commute allows them a bigger opportunity to do things.
With more people looking to rent, whether it be long term or short-term rentals, it is being more people into the fold of needing a rental property. This benefits investors because it starts to take up the vacancies that were present in properties. Which in turn means that there is more revenue coming into complexes allowing for a better quarterly number for the company in the long run.
