According to RENTCafé’s most recent study, mid-rise and high-rise buildings have taken over the apartment market scene, proving developers are building up instead of out, in their quest to provide a healthy supply of residential units. The study shows how apartment buildings have changed over the last 30 years, growing vertically and developing a new trend along the way — high-rise apartment buildings and skyscrapers.
Denver is developing upwards, going from a predominantly low and mid-rise apartment market in the 90s, to boasting a share of 68 percent mid-rise and high-rise buildings out of the entire multifamily sector, in the last decade. According to the report, developers are building more mid-rise and high-rise buildings to accommodate a larger number of units. Nationally, three decades ago, the median number of units of a high-rise building was 243, but it went up by 17 more units in the ’00s and 14 more in the ’10s, reaching the impressive median number of 274.
Findings for Denver include:
- 9% – the share of high-rise apartment buildings developed in Denver between 2010-2018, a significant increase from the 2% delivered during the previous decade;
- 13 new tall apartment buildings are dotting Denver’s skyline. By comparison, in the decade between 2000-2009, only two tall constructions were built.
- With a soaring 35 stories, The Confluence is the tallest apartment building in Denver, completed in the last three decades;
- The average number of floors went up from four to seven over the last three decades;
- Low-rise constructions were taking up 69% out of the entire apartment market during the 90s. By 2018, the share of low-rise buildings fell to only 32%;