Best Practices for Rehabilitating Multifamily Properties

 The renovation and rehabilitation of multifamily buildings presents numerous advantages for real estate professionals, property managers, and communities alike. Due to the nature of today’s housing market, these merits go beyond improving livability and financial performance. Foremost, rehabilitating existing properties provides a more cost-effective and less resource-intensive means of addressing the nationwide rental-housing shortage than new construction. Building renovations and rehabilitation also contribute to climate change mitigation by retrofitting older structures with sustainable and energy-efficient installations. However, realizing the potential of multifamily-property rehabilitation requires following associated best practices.

A comprehensive and strategic approach that optimizes how long the building can remain operationally sound represents the most fundamental aspect of a good multifamily-housing rehabilitation project. Consequently, resolving significant and reoccurring issues is the first priority. This begins with an exhaustive investigation that involves a full assessment of the property and interviews with managers, staff, and residents, if any, to identify pressing or reoccurring problems that demand immediate attention. In addition to impacting longevity, a failure to stabilize the property increases the risk of unexpected complications and the probability of later investments or ongoing repairs.

Alongside a baseline understanding of stabilization essentials, rehabilitation plans most befitting of evolving challenges in today’s built environment incorporate resilient retrofits. These modifications enhance a building’s resiliency against natural disasters and weather-related events, particularly those exacerbated or triggered by climate change. Examples of resilient retrofits include measures to mitigate flood risks, building envelope upgrades to boost thermal performance, and installations to protect structural foundations from seismic activity. With climate change heightening the intensity of hurricanes, wildfires, extreme weather, and alike hazards, resilient retrofits are critical to a building’s structural integrity and the safety of its tenants.

Determining the best resilient retrofits for a given building introduces another best practice in multifamily property rehabilitation: energy efficiency and related improvements. These investments are among the most advantageous strategies for any housing rehabilitation, providing value to owners, managers, and tenants. Energy-efficient heating and cooling systems decrease utility and operational costs, and renewable-energy fixtures like solar panels offer the added benefit of serving as backup generators during grid disruptions. Moreover, upgraded building envelopes foster better living conditions and tenant health by controlling pest and moisture intrusion.

Rehabilitation planning for multifamily housing also needs to consider other factors relevant to the resident experience, such as aesthetic appeal, disability accommodations, and community assets. Renovations to this end can comprise a range of measures, from broadening accessibility features to cover a wider array of disabilities to expanding amenity options and creating spaces that bring tenants together. Transforming a multifamily community’s character also helps to attract and retain tenants. For instance, new paint coatings, recladded facades, and landscaping beautification serve to revitalize the property’s exterior. This is especially beneficial for affordable multifamily housing, as it can reduce the stigma attached to these residences.

For multifamily buildings occupied at the time of rehabilitation, project teams must develop a schedule that minimizes disruptions to residents. One approach to plans that include interior remodeling involves setting up timetables that organize units into blocks and divide the work into staggered phases. Coordinating with residents throughout the process can make the operation run more smoothly. Effective communications to this end entail educating them on safety issues the work will address, providing clear timelines, and keeping them informed of development activities and dates for their group.