The pandemic has prompted renters to not only demand larger spaces, but to seek out apartments equipped with smart-home technology that lets them control their residences wherever they are, an apartment executive said.
This trend has led RangeWater Real Estate to begin incorporating more home-controlling technology into its new apartments and build-to-rent houses and to retrofit some of its older apartments, Carl Walton, senior director of innovation and design for RangeWater, said in an interview at the National Apartment Association's Apartmentalize conference in San Diego.
"It’s big," Walton said of renters' appetite for smart technology in their apartments and build-to-rent homes. "We’re seeing prospects and residents asking for them, not just the smart locks, but they really want to be able to control their apartment from wherever they’re traveling because everybody’s traveling nowadays."
Based just outside Atlanta, RangeWater was founded in 2006 as Pollack Shores. The company often works with large institutional investors and has developed and bought more than $6 billion in properties across the Sun Belt.
RangeWater is incorporating technology in its new build-to-rent houses that are larger and command higher overall rents than many of the company's conventional apartments, Walton said.
"We’re giving them a lot of the smart-home treatment ... so that they feel they’re getting something extra that you’re not getting in an apartment," he said.
But just because prospective renters and residents want the technology doesn't mean owners and investors can flip a switch and it's done, Walton said.
"It takes a little bit of time," he said. "You almost have to gain everybody’s buy-in because that is again an extra cost. You have to show your investors and your company that you’re going to get your money back and then some. So we’re just really focusing on how to create these really innovative designs with smart-home and new cabinet materials, new countertops and also sustainability stuff as well."
As for older properties and those acquired under a value-add strategy of making improvements to allow them to charge higher rents, updating those apartments isn't cheap, Walton said: "It really can be expensive to retrofit."
When making older units smarter with new technology, owners shouldn't try to do everything at once, Walton said.
"What I would say is start small. You typically can start with the smart locks first, thermostats, those type of things," he said. "Then when it comes to the lighting, since a lot of the lighting may be that puck lighting, or whatever, it may be difficult to get the smart bulbs, but you can change it to a smart switch or add a couple of smart switches. You don’t have to go completely smart but just give them a few options."