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Low occupancy, lagging rate growth in apartments likely to persist through 2025

San Antonio has delivered 9,000 apartment units so far this year

Apartment construction is surging in San Antonio. (Gabe Hernandez | SABJ)

SAN ANTONIO – Staggering rates of new deliveries hammering occupancy and rental prices in San Antonio’s apartment market are likely to persist through 2025.

Since the beginning of the year, San Antonio has delivered a whopping 9,000 apartment units, according to MRI ApartmentData, an intelligence firm tracking multifamily statistics in the Sun Belt.

Bruce Mcclenny, industry principal with MRI ApartmentData, expects another 6,000 deliveries before the year is out.

While he says it might not be a record for San Antonio given the construction booms of the 1970s and 1980s, it’s certainly head and shoulders above numbers MRI has recorded for the Alamo City since it started tracking apartment unit growth.

“We’re likely going to deliver way more apartment units than we’re going to be able to absorb this year,” Mcclenny said.

Given the current slowdown in new construction, however, Mcclenny expects around 8,000 new deliveries in San Antonio, and likely even fewer in 2026.

The trouble is that absorption of those newly minted units has been slow, leading to declining occupancy rates.

And middling occupancy has also led to a yearly decline in rental rates. While rates rallied during the summer move-in season, Mcclenny expects a 1% decline in yearly rates this year, that should move upwards to about 3% growth in 2025 as deliveries moderate.

Read more of this story, and other stories like it, in the San Antonio Business Journal.

Editor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between KSAT and the San Antonio Business Journal.


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