Sky’s the limit: apartments going UP in urban downtown

​​​​HOUSTON, DALLAS - Multifamily development in the urban cores of Dallas, Houston and Austin is on the rise, literally, with an increasing number of new apartment high-rises planned and under construction particularly in Dallas and Houston.

The development pipeline is full of high-rises; 65 percent of the Uptown/Downtown construction pipeline consists of high-rise or high-rise conversion projects.

Dallas has yet to be a high-rise market, but by 2019, Dallas will boast a much different skyline. Prime multifamily projects like the Brady, Jordan Uptown and Gables McKinney Ave. are fetching sky high rents as well, averaging around $3 per sf.

As Houston’s urban multifamily construction cycle is winding down, downtown residential continues to change rapidly. 

There is residential power play in downtown H-town—the number of apartments will double by 2017​.

The Downtown Living Initiative granted apartment developers $15,000 per unit in tax abatements to facilitate residential construction. 

As a result, there are more units under construction downtown than existing units, which means the market size will double by 2017.

Market Square Tower, a 40-story, 463-unit high-rise apartment building, will be the tallest multifamily building in downtown when it is completed next year.

As tech companies flock to Austin’s CBD, the increase in young talent has created opportunity for multifamily developers, who have doubled the number of units in the CBD in the last 11 years. 

Class A properties downtown have more than tripled since 2004 and rents have jumped 35 percent in five years.

Shifting demographics continue to make a dramatic impact on urban cores throughout the region. The next generation of Texans—millennials—currently make up 40 percent of CBD residents—a number projected to increase to 53 percent by 2020.