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Did you know that late summer through fall is the most popular time to start planning next year’s multifamily marketing budget? This budget season, build the foundation for leasing success in 2027. These five tips will help you create a marketing budget that delivers results in the year ahead.
1. Understand the market outlook for 2027
To build an effective marketing budget, it’s important to understand the market conditions projected for the year ahead. CoStar data offers exclusive insights about the trends shaping the multifamily industry to give you an advantage heading into budget or any other season.
2026 has been a challenging year for multifamily owners and operators, marked by weak rent growth, elevated vacancy, and high use of concessions. Even as new supply additions have slowed since hitting a 40-year peak two years ago, renter demand has been insufficient to absorb the recent flood of new supply.
What does 2027 hold for the multifamily industry? CoStar data offers a preview of what to expect at the national, regional, and market level.
Nationally, supply additions are expected to continue their downward trend in 2027, but relief will be slow to materialize. New supply is expected to drop by another 24 percent year over year, but vacancy will rise to 8.8 percent early in the year before it eases slightly to 8.4 percent by the fourth quarter. Rent growth is expected to gradually accelerate from 0.5 percent at the beginning of 2027 to 1.5 percent by year’s end.
In areas of the country where supply has been the heaviest, such as the Sun Belt and Mountain regions, rent growth will be slower to accelerate, whereas more balanced markets in the Midwest, Pacific, and Northeast are likely to outperform the national average.
For a closer look at the conditions in your local market, talk to your Apartments.com representative.
With vacancy expected to remain elevated throughout 2027, multifamily operators will continue competing for a limited pool of renters, especially in more competitive markets. This underscores the necessity of a budget focused on delivering a high return on investment.
2. Stay on top of what your peers are doing
Don’t plan your budget in a vacuum. Keep a close eye on how your peers are investing their marketing dollars and why. With key insights from Apartments.com’s 2026 survey of 700 multifamily marketing decision-makers, you can get a glimpse into how your peers are strategizing.
Among the decision-makers surveyed, two primary objectives stand out:
- Delivering high-quality leads
- Having a high lead-to-lease conversion rate
About two-thirds of respondents ranked these two outcomes among their top priorities for the year.
In a challenging market, multifamily owners and operators emphasize the importance of quality leads that convert.
“The biggest issue is leads,” said an asset manager responsible for advertising several small properties under 50 units. “We do get a lot of surface interest, but there are many that are either browsing or are clearly not qualified for the rental. That wastes a lot of time.”
Other marketing outcomes, such as delivering a low cost per lease, generating a high volume of leads, and driving community exposure, ranked lower on decision-makers’ list of priorities. These outcomes were prioritized by only a minority of respondents.
Most multifamily decision-makers are planning with marketing budgets that are the same or larger than the previous year. Overall 44 percent report that their marketing budgets are increasing compared to the previous year, while 48 percent say their budgets are staying the same. Only 8 percent report a decrease.
And once they allocate budget dollars, where are your peers investing their resources? Listing sites like Apartments.com are the most popular marketing and advertising tool, used by 80 percent of survey respondents.
The next popular strategy, email, is used by 53 percent of respondents. All other strategies, from display ads to search engine marketing and generative AI tools, are used by fewer than half of respondents.
3. Know what renters want
As you build next year’s budget, consider which marketing tactics resonate best with the prospective residents you’re trying to reach. To gain valuable insights about your target audience, look at what prospective and current residents are telling you through surveys, online reviews about your properties, and conversations with your leasing teams.
Apartments.com also tracks the latest trends in renter preferences and behavior. And when it comes to sources that prospects rely on in their rental search, one search tool has remained the most popular tool for renters, year after year.
In a recent survey conducted this spring with nearly 27,000 renters, the ILS ranked first, with 85 percent of renters saying they’re using or planning to use a rental search app or website like Apartments.com. In contrast, the second-most popular tool, the property website, was selected by only a third of respondents.
And while many tools have dropped in popularity or stayed flat over the years, the ILS has only gained interest among renters, growing in popularity by 37 percent since 2023.
Renters are also looking for detailed, comprehensive listings. This includes unit-specific photos, which three-quarters of renters want to see, as well as unit-specific floor plans, descriptions, and 3D tours.
“A living space is where I’ll spend most of my time and most of my money,” said one renter surveyed, a 22-year-old man in Buffalo, New York. “I need as much info as possible to make the right decision.”
Price remains renters’ top consideration, and they expect transparency in pricing. Eighty-one percent prefer to see the all-in price advertised, and 52 percent consider surprise fees to be a dealbreaker.
4. Invest in how renters are searching
As you plan next year’s budget, consider whether your marketing tools reflect the ways renters are searching today and tomorrow.
Even as AI use remains limited today, renters are open to it, with 41 percent of renters saying they’d rely on rental recommendations from an AI-powered chatbot, through tools such as ChatGPT or Apartments.com Ai.
Evaluate advertising tools that can extend your community’s visibility across traditional and emerging renter search behavior, delivering results to fill your vacancies.
And to get the most value out of your advertising dollars, follow these best practices to maximize their effectiveness.
5. Get personalized guidance from Apartments.com
Whether you’re looking for property performance data, exclusive local CoStar insights about your market, or tips to level up your listings, Apartments.com is here to help you succeed today and tomorrow.
Apartments.com has the industry’s largest and most experienced team of experts who understand your local market. Contact your Apartments.com representative for personalized assistance to help you reach your leasing goals.
