Multifamily Trends and Connected Living

Developers are upping their game with electronic access control platforms for garden-style and mid-rise apartments.

While high interest rates and a pullback in financing options slowed multifamily starts in 2024, demand remains high for rental homes, particularly in smaller scale communities. Whether it’s because of affordability concerns or because of zoning changes that allow for them, cottage-style multifamily developments of up to four stories are a growing part of the rental market. 

“The big trend in multifamily development over the past several years has been in the garden style segment in what we call the ‘smile of the United States’ in the Sunbelt where lower taxes and a lower cost of living have created a lot of growth,” says Aaron Zarle, National Builder Manager - Multifamily for Assa Abloy Americas Residential, a provider of products and services related to locks, doors and entrance solutions. “Of course, you still see new or renovated high-rise buildings in places like New York and L.A., but the bigger trend over the past 8 to 10 years is away from the downtown type of construction. We see more communities with several low to mid-rise buildings with pools, clubhouses and surface parking."

Single-family Builders Entering Multifamily Arena

“Builders who had been sitting on land for some time needed to decide what would be the most profitable opportunity for it,” Zarle says. “Financially sometimes it made more sense for them to build multifamily properties because of rental rates and affordability issues for first-time buyers.”

Multifamily growth, particularly in Sunbelt markets, has been robust for the past decade or so, but it slowed in 2024 due to higher borrowing costs, the concern about a potential oversupply and flattening rents in a few markets.

“I think the hot pace of construction that we've had for the last three to five years is going to cool a little more over the next 12 months into 2025,” Zarle says. “But I think it will be a small dip or a short one. I think we'll get back into more construction rates like we've seen in the last few years starting in 2026.

Demand Driving Multifamily Development

The two demographic groups driving demand growth for multifamily housing are Millennials and Baby Boomers, Zarle says.

“Over the past three to five years, many people in both of those demographic groups would rather rent than own due a variety of market factors,” he says. “I think that’s still the case. What tenants want is what they’ve always wanted for the past few years.”

While basic amenities such as off-street parking and an in-unit washer and dryer are important, renters also typically value safety, security, and smart home features for simplified access and home management. 

Evolution of Connected Living Technology

While tenants and owner-operators both want smart home systems that provide accessibility, developers and operators typically focus more on ownership of access control and data that helps them manage their buildings more efficiently, Zarle says. 

“These are two different things right now that are merging, with companies looking to combine them,” he says. “The connectivity or the communication protocol between those platforms are very different.”

Traditionally, new construction buildings are more likely than a renovation to install common area access control and unit entry access control, Zarle says. 

A different scenario tends to occur when a developer plans to sell within a year after completion, Zarle says. In that case, the developer is more focused on providing pure access control for the owners, capital expenditure, and functionality for future owner-operators, he says. 

New Technology Designed for Connected Multifamily Communities

Kwikset, part of the Assa Abloy family of companies, recently introduced Unite, the company’s first access control system designed specifically for multifamily communities.

“At Kwikset, we’ve got a pretty sizable market share in the mechanical world with multifamily developers and our channel partners, so we relied on them to help us build this new product,” Zarle says. “We were able to leverage these relationships and ask them what they want and what they didn’t like about currently available products.”

Unite is designed to work best in the growing market of low-to-mid-rise apartments and to service builders, whether they are traditional multifamily developers of garden-style apartments or single-family home builders who are new to multifamily development, Zarle says. 

“The product itself is a basic access control solution for the merchant builder, the developer that's building garden style properties, to then sell” Zarle says. “It gives them a very low-cost solution as it relates to hardware, but the biggest thing is the usability of the software.”

Additionally, the existing built market is also experiencing competitive access control products that are being discontinued and no longer supported. Unite is a great solution to replace those legacy products and fill those gaps with the newest hardware and software solutions available today.

Unite is designed for easy installation and setup of the software and hardware, Zarle says. In addition, the product is simple to use for the property managers once they’re overseeing the property, and ultimately for tenants, too. 

“Residents can open their lock via their mobile device, a fob issued by the property management, or an invite from the property management leveraging our app,” Zarle says. “We have dynamic BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) in our platform, meaning that you've got roughly the right extent of BLE range to interact with the lock. So, from 20 to 30 feet down the corridor, you can click unlock and your door will be open by the time you get there. Plus, tenants can provide guest keys to a significant other, a sibling, a dog walker or a babysitter.”

The difference is that this system is usable by the door, but not through remote locking and unlocking, Zarle explains.

“That is one of the things that developers say: we want to make sure there are no liabilities,” Zarle says. “At the same time, the tenant experience is using their phone to provide access friends and to gain access to their own property.”