New apartments will start to get larger soon

Apartments kept getting smaller in the second quarter of this year, with the median floor space of units falling to under 1,000 sq. ft., the lowest since records began in 1999. That trend seems at odds with rising demand for larger units to accommodate increased working from home. We suspect that dichotomy in part reflects lags in the development process, not helped by COVID-19, as well as surging steel prices. But with demand for bigger units here to stay, we don’t think it will be long before units start to get larger. We expect median floor size for multifamily starts will be back above 1,000 sq. ft. by the end of the year. In view of the wider interest, we are also sending this US Housing Update to clients of our US Commercial Property service