San Antonio's Forecast Sunny, Steady In 2018

The San Antonio real estate market is expected to continue slow and steady growth in 2018, with retail following population growth, industrial clustering top space along the Interstate 35 corridor and office rents remaining flat with an influx of new product.

Next year should be similar to 2017, Investment Realty Corp. President Steve Raub said. This year has been marked by slow, but predictable growth in multifamily rents, plus high-dollar renovations and company relocations. 

“Strong job growth has increased demand for new retail space, office space and industrial space," Raub said in a forecast sent out this week. "Implications are that this expansion will continue into the next year, keeping demand for commercial real estate very strong in a city known for its stable growth." 

Downtown development also will continue to evolve, Raub said. San Antonio was late to the new urbanism game, but it has made strides over the last seven years. The city is about to hit the 7,500-unit Downtown target set out in former Mayor Julian Castro’s Decade of Downtown. Incentives have continued to drive the restoration and reuse of Downtown buildings.

“San Antonio really is in a category all its own,” Raub said. “You have a city coming up on its Tricentennial, its 300th anniversary, west of the Mississippi. That makes it unique.”

Raub pinpoints three events as drivers in the city’s redevelopment: the rebound from the recent recession; the city’s extension of the River Walk; and the redevelopment of the Pearl. Those gains will be extended by the expansion of the convention center and the commitment to redevelop Hemisfair Park.