Marking a Decade High, Over 6,000 New Apartments Were Completed in 2019!
Portland Apartment Units Under Construction Over Time
While news of freshly issued certificates of occupancy is still trickling in, it’s already clear that more market-rate apartments were completed across Portland, Oregon, in 2019 than in any other year of the past decade.
More than 6,200 apartment units came on line in 2019, with at least 75 communities opening their doors. Most new apartments are in luxury properties. Vacancies are currently about 41% for all apartments delivered in 2019, and concessions average just over three weeks of free rent. Rents average $1,650 per month, which is 22% higher than Portland’s overall average rate of about $1,350 per month. Of the new properties to be completed in 2019, about a dozen brought at least 200 units on line.
The high-end five-star, 162-unit TwentyTwenty is among the priciest of Portland’s newest apartment buildings, with rates averaging $2,580 per month. Studios begin at $1,635 per month. Lease-up has been roughly seven units per month. Current concessions include six to eight weeks of free rent for leases of 13 to 18 months. Owned and developed by PHK Development, TwentyTwenty was originally intended to be condos, but pre-sales were slower than anticipated and the project converted to apartments not long before delivery.
One of the largest of 2019’s new apartment complexes, the 300-unit Acero Ridgefield, is in Ridgefield, Washington. Units began coming on line in August, and will continue delivering through spring 2020. Owned and managed by IDM, the development represents more than half of Ridgefield’s total apartment inventory. As of January, vacancy was 66%, and rents averaged about $1,400 per month. Concessions have included one month of free rent. Acero Ridgefield is part of a mixed-used project, with the retail portion still largely underway.
At the end of 2019, about 8,000 apartments were under construction across Portland. This is the lowest number of units in the pipeline since 2015. Additionally, Portland’s count of apartments underway has now contracted for five straight quarters. At present around 70 communities are under construction, of which about 15 are at least 200 units.