Apartment construction is surging across the Milwaukee market, according to the latest research from Marcus & Millichap.
According to the company’s second quarter multifamily research, developers are expected to add 3,633 apartment units to the Milwaukee market during 2017. That is a significant increase from 2016, when 1,924 new apartment rentals came online.
Certain areas of the market will see more new apartments, of course. Marcus & Millichap points to the downtown/Shorewood submarket. Developers are expected to complete 12 multifamily projects in this submarket before the year ends, bringing nearly 1,300 rental units to the area.
Waukesha County is also seeing a big influx of new apartment units, with Marcus & Millichap reporting that 1,100 new rental units will come online this year. The biggest delivery of 2017 is slated for this submarket, too, the 318-unit Junction at White Stone Station.
What is fueling this construction boom? Increasing demand for urban living is helping. At the same time, the population in the Milwaukee area is expected to grow. Marcus & Millichap reported that Milwaukee’s population is expected to grow by 14,600 in the next five years. The market is also expected to see 21,000 new households during the next five years.
This higher demand is good news for landlords. Marcus & Millichap predicts that average effective monthly rents will increase 5.4 percent this year to $1,059. This follows a jump of 4.1 percent in the Milwaukee market in 2016.
