Excerpt from Community Impact:
By the end of 2015, downtown Austin could have as many as 2,534 new apartment units in nine different complexes, said Michael Knox of the city of Austin’s Economic Growth and Redevelopment Office.
Of the planned apartments, 1,122 units are under construction, said Charles Heimsath, president of Capitol Market Research, an Austin-based real estate research firm. Heimsath said the 1,122 units represent approximately 13 percent of the apartment units under construction within Central Austin.
“The demand, as measured by occupancy and sales, has been just extraordinary,” Heimsath said. “I think that everybody has been a little bit surprised at the strength of downtown.”
While the economic downturn reduced the average apartment rent throughout Austin, the rents for downtown apartments have steadily increased, Heimsath said. The average price of a downtown apartment is approximately $2.30 per square foot, which is about double the average price of apartments in other parts of Austin, Heimsath said.
While there are multiple downtown apartment projects in the pipeline, there are no known condos in development, Galligan said. Galligan said clients consistently ask him about downtown condos, but he said he does not have any to show them. Heimsath said a lack of new downtown condo projects is because of a reluctance by national investors to put money into such projects.
Read the full article at Community Impact: http://impactnews.com/austin-metro/central-austin/nine-new-apartments-planned-for-downtown/
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