The downtown Chicago apartment market added more than 2,000 new rental apartments in 2014.
The rental market showed surprising strength last year, but all of the new units haven’t been filled despite discounts and incentive offers that ranged as high as three free months’ rent.
Nearly 4,000 new apartments will be added in downtown Chicago – the area bordered by the Stevenson Expressway, North Ave, Lake Michigan and Ashland Ave – in 2015, followed by as many as 6,000 more in 2016.
New buildings that have achieved full occupancy have been sold to institutional buyers at prices that yielded substantial profits for their developers.
Our best guess is that the new buildings coming to market, anticipating the 2016 surge, turnover from last year’s rentals and the prospect of a huge payday, will offer “whatever it takes” pricing to fill their apartments. Deals at the new buildings are likely to have ripple effects, putting downward pricing pressure on neighborhoods beyond downtown that have seen rents rise rapidly in recent years.
In summary, we’re expecting 2015 to be a year of deals and discounts in Chicago’s apartment market, and we’re gearing up to make it easy for landlords offering deals and renters seeking them to find each other.
Beginning the week of the 25th of January we’ll offer an updated list of deals, discounts and “manager’s pick” apartments during the second and fourth weeks of each month on the following days:
Tuesday, Lakeview
Wednesday, Lincoln Park
Thursday, Near North Side (Streeterville, River North, Gold Coast, Old Town)
Friday, Downtown (Loop, New East Side, West Loop, South Loop, River West, Fulton River District)
You can see all of the new downtown apartment buildings on YoChicago’s at-a-glance list.
Inclusion in this Apartment deals depot feature is limited to YoChicago advertisers.