Essential Housing

A Differentiated Approach to the U.S. Housing Crisis

Today in the United States, younger generations face a serious housing crisis. For decades to come, young professionals will continue to face issues of housing affordability. As a result, essential housing – moderately priced apartments in urban areas close to public transportation and employment opportunities – is in high demand. This missing middle multifamily asset class represents a significant market opportunity.

Housing has been materially underbuilt for the past 15 years, and the US housing shortage is projected to last another five to 10 years, according to reports by Bankrate. In addition, a powerful demographic wave of Millennial and Gen Z working professionals is likely to continue driving demand for multifamily housing. All this adds up to a critical need for moderately priced housing designed to meet the needs of this emerging demographic.

WHAT IS ESSENTIAL HOUSING?

At Grubb Properties, we define essential housing as product for households earning more than 60% of an area’s median income (AMI), but less than 140% of that AMI.

We aim to locate our essential housing communities near large, stable employment centers such as hospitals, biotech and innovation hubs, state governments, or large research universities. We also prioritize locations near transit options, including bike paths, mass transit and greenways, and we build amenities to enable and encourage the use of transit alternatives. We look at high-growth markets as well as high barrier-to-entry gateway markets throughout the United States.

We also prioritize excellent property management that elevates resident satisfaction and retention, decreasing turn costs and making the community a more enjoyable place to live.

LINK APARTMENTS

Meeting a critical need

Grubb Properties pursues essential housing through our Link ApartmentsSM brand, a strategy that we have refined over the last decade. Our focus is on location, seeking out urban, transit-oriented locations close to major fixed employers of essential workers (e.g., universities, innovation hubs and medical centers). We then access these renters at a price point affordable to residents earning 60-140% of the area median income.