Is Your Fall Revenue Management Playbook Ready?

Each week we have been summarizing insights from our weekly “downturn” round table conversations. This week we share a few highlights of our most recent call (May 27). 
On our most recent call, we continued what is now an almost 2-month long trend as participants reported consistent improvement in leasing:

[Denver based] Last week’s leasing was fantastic. It’s been building for a few weeks. This week started off strong.
Saw a significant shift in leasing over the past two weeks in Orlando with 26 leases. We think the announcement about Disney and Disney Springs reopening may have shifted the tide. 

However, urban coastal markets continue to lag in leasing more than the rest of the nation. They are improving, as indicated by one operator sharing, “Leasing has been great over the past two weeks, but we are still down 29% on year-to-date applications. We haven’t quite caught up, but if we can [sustain this] pace going forward, that will definitely be nice.”
The improved leasing performance has not come without its costs. Rents are clearly down, as participants shared:

[Mostly A Class] The recovery is happening, but net effective rents are far below last year. 4-6% declines
May leasing is slightly above last year, but rents are down 4.5%
May leasing is up double-digits over last year, but we see 2% rent declines
Renewal rents are stronger than new leases. For example, 1-3 percent renewal growth flat on new leases

The Gathering Storm
This brings us back to the topic of last week’s ……