[Analysis] Technology Adoption Rates in Multifamily

When discussing technology in multifamily, the focus is often what technology is available, but today, we will assess what technology has actually been implemented.? How do property management companies and owners value and prioritize each piece of technology available to them?

We released the 2024 Technology Adoption Report, which assessed what technologies had been implemented overall in multifamily, but also broken out by portfolio size.? As one can imagine, rollouts often vary dramatically for companies with 25,000 units relative to those with 2,500 units.?

We tracked 94 different classes of technology used in multifamily, and while many technologies are widely implemented, such as property management software and community websites, for our purposes, we tended to focus on technologies that were not as widely adopted, as that indicates either potential growth for the future, or possibly speed bumps in that sector.

We will cover our key findings from the Technology Adoption Report, but as the community holds a variety of viewpoints on different technology subsets, we would love to also hear your perspectives below.

Special thanks to SWTCH and Fitness on Demand for supporting this research.

NOTE:? When we consider the latest technologies available in multifamily, an astounding number have been featured during prior Multifamily Demo Day events.? The latest event in the series is THIS WEEK, so make sure to register:? Multifamily Demo Day

(This event is open to apartment owners and operators.? If you are a supplier, please contact us at the bottom of that page to see how you can be featured in a future event)

Key Findings from the Multifamily Technology Adoption report:

Leasing and Marketing Technologies

As expected, leasing and marketing had pretty strong adoption, as the most common “managing department” for technology was the marketing department, according to NMHC.? That said, some fairly big sectors are still finding their way:

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Self-Guided Tours (40%)

For all the discussion about self-guided tours, this adoption rate seems fairly low.? That said, 28% of respondents indicated they are currently piloting self-guided tours, or self-guided tours are on their future roadmap, so this figure has the potential to increase dramatically in the short-term.? To estimate some sort of ceiling on adoption, it’s worth noting that it has a fairly high percentage of respondents who decided not to implement (15%), although that may change as their access control evolves to give them more opportunities.

Security Deposit Alternative (43%)

While self-guided tours had a large percent currently making headway in adoption, security deposit alternatives still have a way to go, with 24% indicating they have not made a decision on the technology.? This seems to be a function of priorities rather than an outright refusal of the tech, although it does have a fairly large group who have decided not to implement at all (24%)

Short Term Rentals (30%)

Although this segment has gotten a lot of buzz over the past few years, 42% of responders indicated they have decided not to implement. Therefore, is the 30% adoption rate indicating that the segment is still in a nascent stage, or that the ceiling may be lower for this solution.

Chatbots and AI Assistants (67%)

We should note that we did not list out AI as separate categories as we see AI as being integrated into tech categories rather than being categories unto itself.? In other words, using AI to develop 3D floor plans is still considered a floor plan technology, albeit using AI in the process.? That said, we did make an exception for the chatbot and AI assistant category. Still, some implementations within this category are going to be AI-assisted while others are not, so this cannot be used as some sort of AI adoption metric.? (Instead, we recommend viewing our AI research study)

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Resident Management Technologies

In this current climate of high supply and the resulting struggle to raise rents, a focus on resident-facing technologies has taken the forefront.? Here are some takeaways:

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Resident Portal or App (94%)

This number may be hard to parse, as there are multiple ways to view resident portals and apps.? The biggest question is the depth of any given service.? Someone might mark that they have a resident portal or app when in reality, it is a simple maintenance request function and maybe payment processing, whereas next-gen services provide a full suite of tools from access control, package management, and amenity reservations. ?Further, resident-facing apps are facing the same debate as the overall multifamily technology market with bundled versus point solutions being a primary question.

Package Management/Lockers (65%)

A segment that was at the forefront a handful of years ago has matured in recent times.? 65% still seems low, and with only 11% saying they have decided not to implement, it will be interesting to see where this category goes from here.? A large factor in future growth may be dictated by physical constraints of older properties who do not have locker or locker room spaces built out.?

Utility Management (65%)

This one absolutely left us scratching our heads with such low adoption.?

Parking Management (24%)

This was another that was a bit surprising given the pain points of parking in multifamily.? We have to assume this is a growth sector, but maybe someone can chime in below as to why this hasn’t hit a higher mark quite yet.

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Facilities Management Technologies

Outside of work order management and online service requests, which are related, tech adoption in the facilities/maintenance segment is incredibly low.? We have to imagine this is going to be a growth sector relative to other tech categories.

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Inventory Management (43%)

This one is truly shocking.? There are no other words to describe it.

Make Ready Management (67%)

Again, surprisingly low.

EV Charging (32%)

This has to be one of the more interesting storylines that hit the broader US market.? Car manufacturers are starting to pivot from EV’s as demand has dropped, but many factors ultimately play into how this sector plays out, and it seems over the long-term, this is more of a “when” question rather than an “if” question.?

Water Detection (42%)

As discussed in my interview with Cris Kimbrough, will requirements from insurance companies drive this number up dramatically?

Managed Wi-Fi and Streaming Services (48%)

More and more discussions are happening on this front, and with more people working from home and want to extend their connection to the pool, business center, and elsewhere, it will be interesting to see how this progresses.

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Financial Management and Reporting Technologies

While many categories in this section have high adoption, one has to wonder about the variance in sophistication.? With some systems having been implemented for decades, this sector is both very mature, but also may be considered less advanced than some other up-and-coming technology segments.

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Budgeting and Forecast (71%)

To illustrate the point about sophistication, one has to wonder how much of this percentage is an Excel spreadsheet.? That’s not to knock Excel, but it’s not the most up-to-date solution available in today’s market.

Business Intelligence and Data Analytics (69%)

This is a segment we often hear about when it comes to AI implementations, and yet the industry still struggles with “bad data”.? How quickly can multifamily escape from the bad data conundrum to continue progress in this sector?

Revenue Management (62%)

This number is a bit lower than we expected, and it will be interesting to see how it progresses with the much-publicized legal hurdles the segment has faced recently.?

Fraud Prevention (65%)

Discussions of fraud in multifamily are higher than they have ever been.? As AI tools can be used for good, so can they also be used for fraud, and we are seeing examples of this in multifamily.?

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Employee Engagement Technologies

With the difficult economic climate in multifamily right now, the question is often which expense line items are the first to be hit.? We’d like to hear in the comments what expense items you believe are impacted the most in these types of markets.

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Employee Survey (54%)

This has got to be close to the top of the “we know we should be doing this, but we haven’t gotten around to it” list for many companies.?

Team Communications (77%)

If you joined our Multifamily Demo Day event last August, you saw a very intriguing startup in this vein.? Since then, we have seen a few more pop up specific to multifamily.? So while this number seems pretty high, we anticipate that much of it is actually traditional technologies, so these new communications offerings optimized for the multifamily industry are worth monitoring.

Webinar Training (78%)

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention this segment, as it has been a huge way Multifamily Insiders impacts the multifamily community through its Webinar Wednesday series.? Of course, it’s not hard to make an impact when companies can implement expansive training for less than $0.16/unit/mo.?

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Those were some of our biggest takeaways, but with 94 different technology categories represented, I’m sure this community will see some very interesting trends of their own, so share them below! ??

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Download the research report:? 2024 Technology Adoption Report

Register for Multifamily Demo Day:? Multifamily Demo Day

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