Midwest

The multifamily industry faces a major challenge. Final construction costs have grown 33 percent since 2019 interest rates and operational expenses are sky high; and rents may need to increase, where possible, to make deals feasible — an off-putting reality for residents. One developer solution is smaller apartments, which make units cheaper. There is also a push to add more common-space amenities that are both valuable and less costly to include. These features include rooftop spaces, green areas and decks. However, to make these spaces truly usable for today’s multifamily residents, it is important to make them technologically flexible and to offer easy internet connection. “The floor plans of most new-construction multi-dwelling units (MDUs) today are shrinking, and their amenities are expanding,” says Bryan Rader, president of MDU at networking and internet service company Pavlov Media. According to RentCafe, the average size of newly constructed apartment units fell by almost 6 percent in a decade, with half of that change occurring in the last year. Rader likens it to the “resort-style community” approach, where hotel rooms are small, and guests are encouraged to spend time everywhere else on the property. Similarly, multifamily developers create shared amenities such as comprehensive fitness …