HAVE YOU BEEN KEEPING RENT TOO LOW FOR TOO LONG? HOW TO CATCH UP In a tight market, pushing rents to the top makes sense. In this one, it can hand you a vacancy you didn’t need. Vacancy is elevated nationwide, but the picture varies sharply by market. Some owners, especially in submarkets facing new supply and aggressive lease-up competition, have had to work harder to keep occupancy and effective rents steady. Concessions that disappeared during the 2021–2022 boom, such as free months, waived deposits, and reduced first-month rent, are back in many submarkets. If you’ve frozen rents to hold onto tenants, so did many other owners. But if you’ve been sitting on the same rent for two or three years and haven’t had the conversation yet, you’re leaving money on the table, and the gap compounds every cycle you wait.
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