The latest real estate cocktail conversation in Phoenix seems to be around multi-family construction. “I like that project, I don’t like the construction of that one”, “how can they get that built with no set back”, and of course “wow they are really building a lot of apartments here”. Is apartment construction the next bubble? Do we simply need more apartments do to the lack of availability of single family residential? Can the owners obtain the lease rates they will need to make the projects work in the long term?

These and other questions have been popping up around the explosion of new Phoenix multi-family developments. Some of the answers may be in the numbers, if you read between the lines. According to the ABI Multi Family study published at year end of 2014 here is the Phoenix multi-family landscape;

Multi Family Construction Year End 2014

Multi Family Delivered in Past 12 Months
# of Units 4,527
# of Projects 24

Under Construction
# of Units 11,310
# of Projects 44

Planned
# of Units 17,007
# of Projects 73

To give you an idea of the annual delivery of multi-family in Phoenix we can look to the history since 1992. The greatest unit deliver of multi-family in Phoenix was in 2009 with the delivery of 9,315 units. The average unit delivery per year since 1992 has been 4,704 units. We certainly seem to be on track to produce over the average in 2015 and most likely a record setting year of delivering multi-family units in Phoenix.