The 2026
Concessions Report
Trends, blind spots, and what operators are missing as concessions spread far beyond the Sun Belt.
Concessions rose in 34 of the Top 50 MSAs in Q1 2026, yet most data sources still downplay or ignore them. This report maps where they're concentrated, what's driving them, and how to price against a market that's more complex than the numbers suggest.
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Concessions are rising. Most data can't see them.
On paper the market looks stable. But asking rents are increasingly out of step with what operators actually collect, and the concessions filling that gap are buried in property websites that ILS feeds and phone surveys never reach.
National concession trends
A Top 50 MSA breakdown of where concessions are accelerating and where they're pulling back, month-over-month and year-over-year.
- Austin (13.36%) and Denver (11.89%) most stressed
- Minneapolis the only market improving on both horizons
- Submarket-level deep dive from Explore Pro
The hidden concession problem
Why the tools once deemed industry standard can't keep up, and what operators say they need to price against what comps are really collecting.
- Waived fees and move-in perks that never hit listings
- Why unit-level beats floor-plan averages
- Verbatim feedback from revenue and leasing teams
10,000 Class A buildings
What operators are actually advertising right now, by region. Free rent is the default, but the mix beneath it shifts sharply by market.
Everything in the 2026 report.
A 16-page read on the state of concessions in 2026, built on unit-level data parsed daily from 1.1M+ property websites. No phone surveys, no stale ILS feeds.
- ✓A Top 50 MSA map of accelerating and pulling-back markets
- ✓The hidden concession problem distorting today's benchmarks
- ✓A winning concessions playbook: pricing, structure, and timing
- ✓Regional patterns from 10,000 Class A buildings
ApartmentIQ lets us see real-time data on market comps, and specifically the concessions being offered, so we know exactly what we need to do to align. It's making market conditions much more transparent.
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