High-Rise Apartments Rising Fast on Texas Skylines, Market briefs

The skylines of downtown Houston, Dallas and Austin will shortly be taking a definite upward look with an increasing number of new high-rise apartment buildings being planned and under construction, says the CBRE Group commercial real estate services firm.

Robert Kramp

“The demographic cohorts in this driver’s seat are swelling ranks of millennial renters and the oncoming senior tsunami, older people selling their homes and renting apartments,” says Robert Kramp, director of research & analysis for CBRE.

The young and not-so-young are alike in what they want, he said: Inner city living options without the hassle of ownership.

But this isn’t an obituary for the ‘burbs, Kramp says. “The suburban expansion is still ongoing, and is not going anywhere any time fast, especially given corporate relocations and office construction activity, as in North Dallas.”

CBRE says urban residents are increasingly focused on live/work/play environments and, even in the Texas heat, walkability. These three big Texas cities are either gearing up, or are already prepared, for the surge.

HOUSTON: As Houston’s urban multifamily construction cycle winds down, the face of downtown residential continues to change rapidly. “Once a submarket struggling to stay alive after five, Houston’s urban core is benefitting from the Downtown Living Initiative along with quality-of-life projects, such as the new, 12-acre park, Discovery Green, which have changed the way Houstonians utilize the Central Business District (CBD),” CBRE reports.

Houston’s Downtown Living Initiative granted apartment developers $15,000 per unit in tax abatements to facilitate residential construction.