Sustained Improvement in Rent Performance

Sustained Improvement in Rent Performance

The steady increase in apartment demand for Greater Dallas multifamily has had a notable impact on rent growth recently. In addition to returning to positive territory over the past twelve months for average effective rent, increases in lease concession availability have begun to slow.

All numbers refer to conventional properties of at least fifty units and average rents for new leases.

Average Rent

Effective rent growth over the last twelve months, ending in April, was 0.8%. This gain was below average for Greater Dallas but was an improvement over the 2% decline in the prior twelve months. This shift marked the first positive momentum for rents since 2021.

That momentum has also picked up recently. From January through April, effective rent rose by 1.1%. This appreciation followed two consecutive years in 2023 and 2024, with effective rent declines in the same period. 2025 rent performance has come alongside modest improvement on the average occupancy front thanks to a near doubling of net absorption compared to last year.

Of course, rent performance has not been uniform at the submarket level. Thirteen of thirty-one ALN submarkets across Greater Dallas have seen effective rent for new leases decline over the last year. Hardest hit have been areas such as Carrollton South and Skillman – Audelia. Each suffered a decline of just more than 3% in the last twelve months.

At the other end of the spectrum, two submarkets saw rent gains well above the rest of the market in the period. The North Dallas – Midtown West region managed an 11% jump in average effective rent. For the Uptown – Downtown submarket, the twelve-month gain was 8%.  It should be noted that the positive rent performance seemed more due to new deliveries than especially robust demand.

The McKinney – Allen – Fairview portion of the market has dominated in submarket net absorption. The sheer volume of sustained new supply and the resulting occupancy softness, however, has kept rent growth slightly negative there over the past year.

Lease Concessions

An important component of the rent performance environment is lease concession availability. Discount availability began to see a slowdown in growth last year. At the end of last April roughly one-third of conventional properties were offering a lease concession for new residents. That rate of availability was about 75% higher than a year prior. At the end of April 2025, approximately 40% of conventional properties were offering a discount – higher than the pandemic era peak. However, availability rose only about 25% for the twelve-month period.

Given the expected slowdown in lease starts later this year and the positive demand trend that has been in place for multiple years now, further moderation in concession availability growth appears likely. An outright decline in availability for 2025 is possible but less likely. Nonetheless, a continued slowdown in proliferation would be a useful step toward the start of a drawdown in 2026.

Takeaways

The year has gotten off to a solid start for Greater Dallas multifamily. Apartment demand has been trending in the right direction and positive rent growth has reemerged after annual declines in both 2023 and 2024. With the traditionally stronger period of the year now here for both apartment demand and rent growth, market conditions have a good chance of improving further in the coming months.

*Jordan Brooks is Director of Market Analytics at ALN Apartment Data. https://www.alndata.com

ALN is the largest collector of apartment data in the United States. We update property-level information monthly, reporting on properties nationwide, and provide our clients with data analytics, new construction projects, histories, occupancy and rental trend reports, contact databases and locating services.