As solid as multifamily fundamentals are in Columbus — surging supply continues to limit the market's potential. However, that may change by the end of the year.
Both 2024 and 2025 marked record years for deliveries in Columbus, according to a first-quarter regional report from Colliers. That weighed on rent growth yet again, which was 0.37 percent and down from the 0.44 percent posted in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Since 2024, the North Columbus submarket has seen the most multifamily projects underway, followed by Downtown and Hilliard.
But on the bright side, Columbus is outperforming the rest of the U.S. in terms of rents.
"Positively, Columbus market rent growth hasn't turned negative and continues to temperedly absorb consecutive years of record deliveries in 2025 and 2026," Colliers noted.
"Meanwhile, Yardi Matrix recently reported 33 months of consecutive declines in advertised multifamily rents nationally."
Concessions remained active in the first quarter, with 68 percent of the properties that delivered in 2023 offering incentives to lure tenants in.
But the current trends bode well to make conditions more favorable for multifamily landlords in Columbus. This year, construction is set to plummet by a projected 55 percent to 4,355 units compared to 2025. Just 2.03 percent of the market-rate inventory is underway. This is "providing a strong foundation for expectations of rent growth acceleration and concessions to be transitory," according to Colliers. That comes as the region is expected to deliver 9,160 units in deliveries in 2026 after 9,668 market units were delivered in 2025.
Another positive is the growing number of residents. Citing census data, Colliers said that the city grew its population by one percent in 2025, which was double the pace of the national average. Moreover, the CRE brokerage noted that investment sales activity in the market was "robust."
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