Rent is expensive, and it’s getting more so by the month.

Thanks to changes in demand and construction — or lack thereof — caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation, the cost of rent nationwide has soared through the roof.

Today’s average asking rent stands 77.1% more than the national median gross rent from 2020, at $2,016 per month. Those prices have spiked significant just within the last year, too.

The average asking rent has increased by double digits year-over-year for each of the last four quarters — 12.38% in September 2021, 15.57% in December 2021, 16.66% in March 2022 and 14.09% in June 2022.

More than 35% of all households in the U.S. rent where they live, of which nearly half are spending in excess of 35% of what they make on rent alone. This increasingly-expensive aspect of cost-of-living is forcing many people to shop around for housing more consistently than they would have in the past.

As a result, owners of Multiple Dwelling Units (MDUs) are scrambling to differentiate their property from others, relying on extra amenities and other factors might steer the conversation away from the price of rent.

There’s one thing that all MDU property owners today can use to support inevitable rent increases to not only attract new tenants but keep their existing ones: High-speed, reliable and ever-present connectivity.

Give Residents What They Want MDU property owners are searching for differentiators to highlight at their property and support rent increases. Most focus on safety and security, cleanliness and convenience, and added amenities such as community centers, pools and fitness centers.

But, the one thing that stands above everything else in the minds of residents is connectivity.

The National Multifamily Housing Council produced a 2020 Preferences Report along with Kingsley Associates that found that 91.7% of apartment residents desire high-speed internet. What’s more, 74.8% wanted WiFi that was pre-installed in their apartment, and 69.3% wanted community WiFi.

Another study conducted by the National Apartment Association found that renters in Generation Z ranked having a community that was enabled for WiFi as their second preference for amenities, behind only guaranteed parking.

It’s not just that residents want WiFi; it’s that they want it to immediately be on when they enter their unit for the first time.

Residents don’t want to sit on hold for hours with an Internet Service Provider trying to set up a new account and installation appointment. They don’t want to, then, wait days or even weeks before they can access the internet. They want to be able to connect right away.

Residents also want to stay connected wherever they roam throughout the property. They don’t want to have to disconnect from one network and connect to another when they leave their unit, walk down the hall and over to the community center, the pool or the fitness center. They want to remain connected the entire time.

This is all possible, but only if the MDU owner provides a well-designed network.

Future-Proof Your Property There are many side benefits to creating an impressive network at your MDU property. It’s not just about providing internet connectivity to residents so they can work, communicate and entertain themselves.

MDU properties are best able to implement technologies based on the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart homes if they have sufficient network infrastructure. And these are things that, on the front end, are trending in rental properties nationwide.

That same 2020 Preferences Report produced by the NMHC found that rental residents are willing to pay a premium of about $30 per month for smart home technology. This could be anything from smart locks and doorbell cameras to smart thermostats and appliances.

That’s real monthly income that will result in an outstanding ROI over time.

In addition, there are back-end administrative functions powered by IoT that can reduce an MDU owner’s overhead.

Vendor management and maintenance tickets, for instance, can be fully integrated with the property’s management software, allowing staff to control access to specific areas of the property.

Smart sensors and AI-powered software systems can help property owners more effectively and efficiently manage their large community-wide systems such as power, HVAC, water and refrigeration.

For these smart home devices and back-end systems to work properly, though, MDU properties need to have a solid network that’s built to last and is always on.

It needs to reliable. It needs to run over WiFi. It needs to be accessible throughout the community. And it needs to be future-proof to ensure major upgrades aren’t required in short order as technology changes.

Elauwit Can Help Your MDU Property Get Connected While rental residents certainly care about safety and security, cleanliness and convenience, and other added amenities, what they care about the most is their access to reliable high-speed internet, not just in their rental unit but throughout the property.

MDU owners can and should use this fact as a way to support the rising cost of rent. To do that, though, they must be able to provide this connectivity.

Elauwit, a boutique national telecom service provider, can help you do just that. As technology advisers, Elauwit can help identify your connectivity needs and design a network that meets the desires of your renters for now and into the future.