Sharon Wilson Géno is President of the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), the leading voice for the U.S. apartment industry. With more than 30 years’ experience in housing policy, development, and advocacy, she has shaped critical initiatives across both private and public housing sectors. Sharon is a respected national leader driving innovation and resilience in the multifamily housing market. She will be a keynote speaker at LSS25 and will give details on how the US market is evolving which may also impact Australia’s BTR sector. We include a few starter questions here to whet your appetite.

How would you describe the current state of the multifamily housing market in the U.S., and what forces are shaping its trajectory right now?

This is a great question and one that we focus on every day with U.S. lawmakers at all levels of government with the goal of educating them about the challenges and opportunities facing rental housing providers and renters. For decades, the United States has not built enough housing and today we are facing the consequences of that lack of development. For example, research sponsored by NMHC and the National Apartment Association found that U.S. needs to build 4.3 million more apartments by 2035 to meet the demand for rental housing.

The U.S. is facing a perfect storm that has made the building of new and badly needed housing all the more difficult. A combination of higher interest rates, rising labor, construction and insurance costs, and lower rent growth has led to a pullback in new construction. Although we have had a recent influx of new supply, it will only be temporary.  Multifamily construction starts in the U.S. were 29% down from their most recent peak in 2022 as of this year’s second quarter, which will lead to rising rental housing costs. Unless there is swift and decisive action, by 2027, we could see a similar situation to what we saw post-Covid, with dramatic price increases.

The most important point we stress to lawmakers is that we, as a nation, desperately need more housing supply. Thankfully, there now seems to be a greater understanding of this across both political parties. So, the question becomes: How do we achieve that? And the answer, at a high level, is that we need to encourage lawmakers to pass legislation that makes it easier to build and ensures that multifamily housing is a favored asset class for investors. 

The NMHC regularly gathers data on renter sentiment and investor confidence. What emerging trends in resident preferences or investor strategy are you seeing in 2025?

One of the biggest challenges that rental housing providers face in the United States is the perception that rental housing, particularly multifamily rental housing, is housing of last resort and residents don’t enjoy living in our communities. Nothing could be further from the truth. Research from the NMHC 2024 Renter Preferences Survey Report of over 177,000 renters across the country found that:

• 85% of respondents reported that they agree or strongly agree with this statement: “I enjoy living in my community.”
• 86% of respondents reported that they feel included and accepted in their community and that their property staff demonstrate a culture of respect and kindness.
• 75% of respondents felt their wellbeing is important to community management.

Multifamily design differs from state to state and region to region across the United States depending on climate, demographic drivers in a given area, local regulations and any number of other reasons.

However, one overriding trend we have been witnessing for years is how important features and amenities related to connectivity continue to be to renters. Amongst the many criteria prospective residents consider when choosing their apartment homes, connectivity remains a top consideration. Residents expect ease of access and consistency when it comes to internet access, and we have found that the majority will not rent without it.

Modular and prefabricated construction methods are gaining interest globally. Are you seeing significant uptake in these approaches within U.S. multifamily projects—and if so, what lessons might Australia draw from that experience?

Innovation in the construction process is absolutely important to overall housing costs if our goal is to ultimately lower housing costs for residents. Unfortunately, the U.S. has been slow to adopt innovative housing construction methods, in large part due to the fact that locally controlled building codes often do not accommodate them easily. In many ways, construction processes today aren’t that different than they were 50 years or more ago.

Regardless, modular construction certainly has and will continue to play an increasingly important role in housing development. It can offer shorter timelines and, therefore, reduced labor costs at a time when those costs are rising steeply. However, the model still seems to face challenges—perhaps top among them is gaining the confidence to have steady capital investment. Also, just like traditional multifamily development, modular development faces serious regulatory challenges like outdated zoning and building codes. The U.S. also does not yet have enough manufacturing facilities near population centers to use modular on a mass scale.

This is another instance where we encourage lawmakers to be open to innovation and not be locked into outdated processes and rules which hamper new construction and harm affordability.

Affordability remains a global challenge. How is the U.S. multifamily sector responding—with tenure innovation, public-private partnerships, or new financing tools—and are any of these scalable across borders?

Housing affordability was a major concern in our elections in 2024, as identified by voters as a top three issue in virtually every national poll. We always make the point that housing policy that enables all Americans to have housing choices is not a Liberal or Conservative issue; it is a human issue and the hallmark of any civil society. 

Housing providers across the United States are dealing with housing affordability issues in any number of ways—such as taking advantage of federal incentive programs like Opportunity Zones, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit or incentives for building closer to public transportation. Some cities and states also have a myriad of incentive programs including some aimed at building workforce housing, housing for formerly homeless and alike. While these public-private partnerships can be effective, the policy is diffuse and piecemeal, with developers patching together a variety of funding sources in the same deal to make the numbers work.

At the end of the day, industry can only do so much when so many of the costs are out of our control. That is why creating a cohesive federal housing policy where public-private partnerships can thrive is so important.

I would strongly encourage Australian lawmakers to focus on how they can work with private partners to create those partnerships and provide sufficient  incentives for more housing investment rather than enacting restrictive policies like rent control or rent stabilization that has held back rental housing production in Canada and parts of the United States, among others.   

Finally, if you could recommend just one thing that Australia’s rental housing market should adopt or adapt from the U.S. multifamily experience, what would it be—and why?

I wish there was one silver bullet I could provide you with that would solve all housing and affordability problems. Unfortunately, there isn’t. We need to use all the tools at our disposal—starting with close partnerships with government at all levels—to make housing affordable, expand housing supply and improve housing opportunity. That being said, one area where government policy has helped move multifamily housing investment along the most is the tax code. There are several tax provisions, most of which were recently renewed, which help provide favored tax treatment for multifamily. Given the inherent risks in real estate development, better tax treatment helps make multifamily housing a competitive asset class. I would urge the Australian government to consider more favorable tax treatment for multifamily housing investments as an important policy tool to spur more development.   

At the same time, we need to make sure not to adopt policies that may be well-intentioned and sound good as a news clip, but really only function to make the development of new and badly needed housing all the more challenging. Creating incentives for more investors to put their money into multifamily housing is critical. NMHC and our members stand as partners to you, and we look forward to doing all we can to support your efforts here in Australia.

Sharon will be joining us at the Living Sectors Summit this November to share even more insights. View the brochure for details on her session and the full two-day agenda.