Survey data indicates that an overwhelming 71% of residents support charging higher pet fees for irresponsible pet ownership. This includes failure to pick up after pets and repeated off-leash instances. It also factors in pet misbehavior, such as incessant barking and aggressive behavior.
This week’s top multifamily storylines: study shows more renters moved in 2020 despite the pandemic, the complexity of apartment companies requiring vaccines, average rent due to exceed $6K for those behind on rent, LeaseLock hits $1B in leases insured, Lincoln gets ready to acquire Excelsior Multifamily and affordable housing set to get a boost from Biden’s infrastructure plan.
According to the Multifamily Pet Policies and Amenities Survey recently released by PetScreening and J Turner Research, 26% of pet-owning respondents indicated they acquired their pet during the pandemic. The rate climbs to 39% when narrowing down to student-only respondents.
Data from the Pet-Inclusive Housing Initiative reveals nearly one in four apartment residents say their pet has been a reason for needing to move. The 24% figure translates to approximately 5.5 million renting households that have been displaced or voluntarily sought a new home as a result of their pet.
Many apartment operators have worked diligently to improve their pet-friendliness levels. And if pet friendliness wasn’t already a primary focus, it definitely should be now. New data indicates that the well-documented spike in pet adoption during the pandemic has made an impact in the apartment world.
While proprietary data systems were favored in the past, the industry is gravitating toward a data-sharing model, knowing that the ability to integrate data enhances the capabilities of the provider and operator. And yes, pet and assistance animal information is part of the mix.
Seeing that nearly 70% of residents are pet owners—that’s more than two-thirds of a community’s population—it makes sense that pet data would be tracked in the same way. Those who do aim to track pet data often do so in haphazard fashion.
Six months of paused evictions, lulls in rent hikes and waived fees have helped countless renters better weather the pandemic, but have left many housing providers feeling the pain of lost revenue. Providers are responding by seeking to grow asset value via investment in technologies.
Managing resident pathogen fears, stacking your tech strategically, leveraging ESG incentive programs and multifamily leasing performance make up this week’s top multifamily news headlines.
Labor Day marked the unofficial end of summer. On a national basis, multifamily data and metrics have been hovering around the same points since mid-summer. But in the week ending on Sept. 6, we saw the biggest closing of that YoY gap since March.