Rent Growth Cools as Construction Heats Up

With multifamily development dominating, we'recorrallingexperts forour Dallas State of the Market on May 29 at the Fairmont Dallas. (Register here.) To get pumped, we askedPost Properties regional investment EVP David Ward about rents, and he says growth is down as new product comes online. (At least lots of futons are excited about having a new home.)

David (above, at a Bisnow Dallas multifamily event last year) tells us Post has 4,700 units in Dallas, which is an important market from an ongoing revenue growth and bottom line standpoint. However, Post is in a wait-and-see posture for the Metroplex, as the company seeks to grow its market position in Austin and Houston. Post has a site in Frisco but hasnt pulled the trigger because rents havent been sufficient enough, he says, and theres five deals in that neighborhood under construction already.

By historical standards, were seeing a normal amount of construction, David says. The economy is doing well and there is still some rent growth in Uptown, where a lot of product is coming online. The market has been pretty resilient, and Post is still able to grow its rents, but at a smaller level than in the past two years. David sees rent growth tempering and says the price point that the market is building to now makes the suburban markets seem a little more sensitive to new product coming online. (This is all normal, he adds--don't get into the panic bunker just yet.)