Houston Apartment Incentives

Houston Apartment Incentives

Over the last couple of years Houston has seen an increase in apartment rates for several reasons. Many new class "A" apartment communities had been developed all over the greater Houston, Texas area; including the luxurious inner loop area. The Houston inner loop houses some of the most expensive real estate including the coveted River Oaks area and Downtown Houston sections. As the new apartments commanded higher rental rates, these new communities also began to pull up rates of "B" and "C" properties.

New apartment communities including The Amalfi at Herman Park in the Houston Medical Center command rates above the thousand dollar mark for a one bedroom apartment home. To renters who pay $800 or $900 for a class "A" property; this is too large of a rent increase to upgrade. Many students and young professionals do not have the budget to pay for a property of this stature. Older communities that have been around for 10 years or so continued to fill up and witness their vacancies dry up; therefore these properties had no choice but to raise their rates too. So in essence as the apartment market increased in size properties were able to raise rates as vacancy rates did not swell up. However class "C" properties did not participate in the run up. Some properties like 2111 Holly Hall chose to remodel their interiors to fetch higher rates instead.

As of late we have witnessed properties in the area offering more incentives including gift cards and free deposits to apartment renters. Although this mainly holds only for the brand new communities; this may branch out to other communities like The Plaza Museum District. If Houston sees a decline in its growth if will affect the entire apartment market which may be over-built. New apartment construction in Houston was fueled by movement of the increasing movement of the population of the United States into the sunbelt states and the ease of getting construction loans.

If the recession hits Houston hard; we may continue to see more free rent and other incentives start to bleed into older apartment communities like the The Macgregor too.