The surge in new apartment deliveries across the country has created intense competition for renters, but it also has spurred an increasingly competitive labor market as property managers look for people to lease and maintain their buildings.
The Washington, D.C., market had 614 open job postings for apartment staff as of Q1, according to a National Apartment Association Education Institute report, with 171 of those in the leasing category. Those leasing consultants saw a huge bump in pay over the last year, with average salaries rising from $38K to $52K, a 37% jump in just 12 months.
This trend was mirrored around the country, with the average nationwide salary for leasing consultants rising 9.7% over the last year from $45,307 to $49,702, according to the NAA.
That is significantly higher than the pay increases workers across the U.S. economy are getting, with national wage growth hovering around 2.6% over the last three years. There were 8,754 nationwide job openings in the rental housing industry as of Q1, with 2,871 of them in leasing.
Greystar Senior Managing Director Kevin Sheehan, who oversees the D.C., Philadelphia, New York City and Boston markets for the nation's largest property management firm, said competition has heated up for hiring the best apartment professionals.
The salary Greystar pays community managers has risen about 20% over the last five years, Sheehan said. Some top community managers at large projects in downtown areas earn as much as six figures, he said.
"They need to be really good, and we're willing to compensate them well when they do that job," Sheehan said. "It's definitely competitive."
This can have an impact on a property management company's bottom line and cause rents to rise. Sheehan said Greystar is able to lower expenses such as materials and insurance because of the company's scale, but the one area they cannot reduce operating costs is payroll.
"The only way to offset that is to continue to try to push the rents up wherever you can," Sheehan said.
The NAA did not track this salary data prior to 2017, but NAA Industry Research and Analysis Director Paula Munger said it does seem to be an abnormally high spike in pay.
"It's highly competitive, there are more apartments now than there has ever been, and there's more demand," Munger said. "We're almost in a new world of consistently high demand for apartments, so I would say it's unusual to see this increase."
Leasing consultants tend to need a bachelor's degree or higher and some level of experience in the industry, Munger said. This limits the overall pool of applicants from which companies can hire.
"If there's a certain number of leasing consultants in a particular area, you'll be having owners and managers really competing for the same talent," Munger said. "It becomes a more valuable position."
Sheehan said Greystar is more concerned with an individual's personality and work ethic, and would be willing to hire leasing professionals with little experience.
"I don't always need somebody with a proven track record," Sheehan said. "Sometimes you hire someone with a proven track record for big lease-up projects, but we're hiring for personality and characteristics and motivation and drive. We'll teach them everything they need to know."
Apartment deliveries are expected to hit a nationwide peak this year, with an estimated 360,000 units coming online, according to Yardi Matrix, a 20% increase from last year. D.C. is expected to deliver 5,866 units between Q2 2018 and Q2 2019, according to Delta Associates, a 26% increase from the prior 12 months. But construction is expected to level off after 2019, which could alleviate some of the competition for leasing professionals.
"I wouldn't expect it to keep up at this pace," Munger said of the salary increases. "Once deliveries start tapering off, you'll see it settling back to the norm."
