Apple Projects Lift Nearby Rental REIT, Multifamily Markets

Apple’s new R&D campuses in Research Triangle, NC and Austin, TX—inaugural projects of the tech giant’s five-year plan to invest $430 billion in the US—are lifting markets for rental properties and residential REITs in the Raleigh-Durham and Austin regions. 

The projects also are accelerating the growth of multifamily markets in the two metros, which in 2021 were among the top 20 multifamily markets in the US.

Apple’s East Coast campus in Research Triangle, announced in June, will employ 3,000 high-tech workers in machine learning, artificial intelligence and software engineering. The Austin campus will open this year with an in-office workforce of 5,000. Overall, Apple’s $430-billion expansion in the US is expected to generate up to 20,000 new jobs.

Access to Research Triangle’s growing cluster of research facilities played a role in Harbor Group International’s recent $475-million acquisition of Dasmen Residential LLC’s workforce housing portfolio, which includes more than 2,000 housing units in nearby Raleigh-Durham. The acquisition will increase HGI’s North Carolina portfolio to about 5,000 apartments.

“The Research Triangle is an important target market for HGI as we seek to acquire well-located communities in high-growth markets,” said Richard Litton, president of HGI. “As the area’s high-paying STEM jobs continue to attract new residents, we see opportunity to leverage our expertise in owning and operate similar communities in the region to generate rent growth and increasing demand for housing.”

Residential REITs expanding their footprint in Raleigh-Durham and Austin include Camden Property Trust, which operates 171 properties in the US, and Mid-America Apartment Communities. The Apple campuses are expected to create higher occupancy and rental rates at existing properties and more demand for development projects under construction that will soon cut the ribbon.

Office REITs also may get a lift from Apple’s campuses as suppliers and partners are drawn to Austin and Raleigh-Durham. Highwoods Properties, which gets more than 20 percent of its NOI from Raleigh, has available sites for an estimated 1.2 million sf of additional office space. Cousins Properties, which generates nearly a third of its NOI from Austin, has two development projects under construction in the Texas capital.

The thriving tech hubs in Raleigh-Durham and Austin are fueling regional growth in multifamily investments. A new report from CBRE and Real Capital Analytics measuring the top 20 US markets for multifamily in 2021 ranks Austin as the nation’s tenth-largest market, with $9.55 billion in investments; Raleigh-Durham came in at No. 13, with investments totaling $6.2 billion.

Multifamily investment surged by more than 30 percent in the Southeast in 2021, the highest of any region in the US, according to a report from Newmark. Multifamily investment in the Southeast totaled more than $103 billion, Newmark said.

In the past year, Apple opened office space in Seattle for 1,000 employees and began an expansion of its Culver City, CA campus, where it expects to employ more than 3,000 tech workers by 2026. Apple also is expanding its workforce in Boulder, CO and Boston.