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Understanding Renter Preferences,
Priorities + Perspectives
Within 60 days of moving into a Greystar managed community in the United States, residents receive an invitation to participate in the online Design Survey.
The survey poses two key questions. First, survey recipients are asked: how high of a priority are the following apartment features/amenities when making your lease decision? They are presented, in turn, lists of 18 apartment features and 29 community amenities and prompted to select one of five responses for each attribute: very high priority, high priority, neutral, low priority, or very low priority.
Respondents are then asked the following: if there are two identical apartments, but only one has the following feature/amenity, how much more rent per month would you expect a renter in your area to pay for the apartment with that feature/amenity? The survey presents respondents with the features they previously described as a very high priority and prompts them to assign each a value between $5 and $200 in $5 increments.
The charts below summarize the responses to these questions. Responses to the first question allow us to determine how highly residents prioritize specific features and amenities when deciding to lease an apartment. Responses to the second question indicate the rent premiums our residents expect renters in their area to pay for a feature or amenity.
PARQDenver, CO
PARQDenver, CO
The chart below illustrates the relationship between how highly survey respondents prioritize a particular attribute and how much additional rent they expect renters to pay for it. Examining this relationship can provide valuable insight into how the presence of the attribute influences property performance in terms of rent growth and occupancy.
For example, if a property owner introduces an attribute with a high rate of very high priority responses and a high expected rent premium, she may be able to push rents and increase occupancy at the same time, because the attribute is popular, and renters are willing to pay a lot for it.
However, if she installs an attribute with a small percentage of very high priority responses but a high expected rent premium, she might be able to charge some residents a significant premium, but she may not be able to increase occupancy because few potential residents place a high priority on the attribute.
And if she introduces an attribute with a high rate of very high priority responses but a low expected premium, she might be able to increase occupancy given the popularity of the attribute, but she may not be able to increase rent, all else remaining equal, because renters are not willing to pay for it.
Use the filters to see how the relationship between priorities and premiums varies across locations, property types, and income brackets.
PARQDenver, CO
Greystar sent the same version of the Design Survey to residents for four years, from 2019 through 2022, yielding more than 166,000 responses. The charts below show how these responses changed during these eventful years and reveal trends in resident preferences and perceptions about rent premiums.
PARQDenver, CO
For more insights from the Design Survey, please see the 2023 Survey Report. This report examines survey responses from 2019 to 2022 and highlights key trends in resident preferences.
