Expanding Access While Maintaining High Standards: How To Navigate Multifamily Vacancy Pressures

The U.S. multifamily market is increasingly split. As newly completed blocks in the Sun Belt sit empty following years of a construction boom, rents tick up in New York, Chicago and the Bay Area.

But whether owners and operators are trying to stand out in a crowded market or protect momentum in a stronger one, leasing strategy matters, said Jennifer Nau, a senior director of sales at TheGuarantors. Overall rents across the country are down 1.2% compared to a year ago. 

“With multifamily currently in peak leasing season, now is the time to move faster to secure renters and find ways to approve more qualified applicants with the right rent roll protection,” she said. “The goal is to use solutions available to do this sustainably.”

Nau described the multifamily market across the country as bifurcated. Rents are holding up in areas with lower supply such as the Bay Area and Chicago, while cities such as San Antonio, Austin and Denver are seeing high vacancy rates and declining rents due to a flood of new supply in recent years. 

Even within states, performance can vary widely, Nau said. South Florida, for example, continues to benefit from population growth and strong demand, while other Florida markets with heavier recent deliveries are experiencing higher vacancy levels.

“It is a local market story,” she said. “In some cities, operators are still protecting rent growth. In others, the priority is moving qualified renters through the funnel faster so units do not sit vacant.”

There are several measures an operator can take to try to sustainably increase the renter pool and accelerate leasing velocity, Nau said. To begin with, they need to train leasing teams to improve follow-up processes with prospects and shorten application review timelines. 

From her own experience working with operators, the moment when a renter is conditionally approved can make or break a deal, she said. 

If the leasing team offers a next step to get approved quickly, the deal progresses. If the renter needs to find a personal guarantor and wait for a longer manual review, they could choose to lease elsewhere.

“Operators should look closely at where renters are dropping off and why,” Nau said. “Are they falling short of income requirements? Are they being asked for a personal guarantor? Are they getting delayed after a conditional approval?”

Once an operator understands the drop-off points for potential renters, they can create better pathways for renters who are close to qualifying but need an alternative route, she said.

In today’s market, this includes the increasing number of people who have nontraditional profiles, resulting in credit and income that don't meet traditional application criteria. 

For example, 39% of U.S. workers freelance, an increase of 4% since 2025. By 2027, that number is expected to be more than 50% of the workforce.  

Traditional screening methods alone aren’t sufficient to capture applicants who may have thin or no credit or insufficient rent-to-income ratios, for example, but are still capable of being quality residents who pay on time, Nau said. 

However, the answer to approving a greater number of applicants doesn’t lie in lowering standards.  

“Lowering screening standards is not the same thing as expanding access,” she said. “This may help occupancy in the short term, but it can create longer-term issues if it leads to higher delinquency, more bad debt or more operational strain for on-site teams.”

Instead, solutions exist to give renters a faster, easier path to approval with the right rent roll protection in place for owner-operators. Nau described how TheGuarantors’ Lease Guarantee solution is designed to allow operators to approve more renters while staying protected against financial loss due to default, damages and more. 

When a renter purchases a Lease Guarantee through TheGuarantors, the operator can confidently approve them knowing they are backed by a greater level of rent protection than they would get through a traditional cash security deposit, Nau said. 

TheGuarantors’ artificial intelligence-driven renter underwriting platform, which complements traditional screening, approves roughly 80% of applicants who do not meet standard income requirements and 50% of applicants who do not meet standard credit requirements.

“That matters even more in today’s market,” Nau said. “When vacancy pressure is high, the goal should not be to take on more risk. It should be to approve more qualified renters in a way that doesn’t expose portfolios to increased bad debt.”

Signs suggest that the multifamily market is brightening. The national vacancy rate of 7.2% in June was 0.1% lower than in February, the first drop since 2021, when the boom in supply began.

Construction completions were 30% lower in Q1 2026 year-over-year, and are expected to decline further, which should ease oversupply in the Sun Belt. 

However, while the broader market may improve as new deliveries slow, operators can’t rely on the market to solve occupancy challenges, Nau said. Rent growth is predicted to remain modest throughout 2026. 

“In this environment, and as renter profiles continue to evolve, every potential application matters,” she said. “Operators that understand where applicants are falling out of the funnel, and create smarter approval paths, will be better positioned to protect both occupancy and the bottom line.”

This article was produced in collaboration between TheGuarantors and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.