Published on August 22nd, 2024
By Marc Frenkiel

As the housing landscape evolves, understanding renter preferences has never been more critical. The AppFolio Renter Preferences Report sheds light on what today’s renters truly want — a crucial insight given the U.S. Census Bureau’s projection that nearly 1 million new apartment units will be available by 2025. With this increase in options, it’s imperative for property owners and management companies to not only meet but exceed renter expectations to drive retention and occupancy levels. 

The 2024 Renter Preferences Report, which surveyed over 2,000 U.S. renters, provides comprehensive data and actionable insights needed to navigate these changing dynamics and keep your units filled in a crowded market. Here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll find in the report.

Satisfaction With Property Management

The majority of surveyed renters are satisfied with their property management company, but there is still room for improvement. Improving resident satisfaction with property management is critical to retaining current residents, especially as competition heats up with new construction completions.

In the next 12 months, 35% of renters are planning to move, and satisfaction with property management plays a major role in their plans. Renters who are satisfied with their property managers are 30% less likely to say they are planning to move, compared to those who are unsatisfied.

The data shows that recommendations from friends or family are a key consideration for prospective renters when evaluating a new rental, and satisfied renters are 5.5 times more likely to recommend their property management company than unsatisfied renters.

Satisfaction With Communication and Maintenance

Satisfaction with communication was found to be a main driver of overall satisfaction with property management, and dissatisfaction in this area also drives move-outs. Renters who are satisfied with communication are 25% less likely to be planning a move and four times more likely to recommend their property managers than renters who are unsatisfied with communication.

As with communication, maintenance is important to renters, as it directly impacts their quality of life, safety, and comfort. According to our data, those satisfied with maintenance are 25% less likely to say they are planning to move and three times more likely to recommend their property management company. 

Satisfaction With Financial Services

Financial services offered by property management companies play a crucial role in enhancing renter satisfaction. The data shows that financial services are important to most renters, but most of these services are only available to a minority of renters. 

According to the survey, younger renters, who make up the lion’s share of the renter population in the U.S., place even more importance on these financial services, and the importance of these services is significantly higher among users. This suggests that as the availability of these services increases and more renters use them, it will be more important for property managers to offer these services.

Satisfaction With Technology

Similar to financial services, resident-facing technologies (such as resident portals) are also important services to offer renters. Online portals are important to most renters (and this is even higher among younger renters), but this technology is available to just 60% of them.

The technology of an online portal was helpful to 95% of renters who used one to complete move-in tasks, such as signing the lease, paying a security deposit, setting up utilities, and buying renters insurance. Signing the lease and paying the security deposit were by far the most common move-in tasks completed via an online portal.

It’s not just residents who benefit from completing these essential move-in tasks through their online portal. For property managers, it alleviates the burden of being a hands-on facilitator, making the process of settling new residents into their homes more efficient. 

In today’s rental landscape, attracting new renters and retaining current ones is more and more difficult. Check out the full Renter Preferences Report for data-backed insights on how to meet and exceed renter expectations.