Virginia Beach Apartment Performance Hits Recent High

Virginia Beach’s apartment market saw occupancy and rent growth hit a recent high in 3rd quarter, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. At 97.5%, occupancy in Virginia Beach is the tightest among the nation’s largest 50 apartment markets and is the strongest reading the market has achieved in 16 years. Virginia Beach was one of only six large apartment markets to see occupancy increase in the past year. While the nation as a whole logged a decline of 60 basis points (bps) year-over-year, occupancy in Virginia Beach climbed 50 bps. Solid occupancy inspired confidence among apartment operators, who pushed effective asking rent growth to 3.5% in 3rd quarter, a performance surpassed only by Riverside and Sacramento. The last time Virginia Beach saw such a strong increase in rents was more than a decade ago. Helping spur solid occupancy and rent growth, apartment demand during the pandemic has remained somewhat stable, missing out on some of the steep declines logged in some other large markets.