2023 AppFolio Property Manager Benchmark Report: Growth Outlook Is Positive Among Property Management Organizations Despite Broader Economic Challenges

Property managers cite expanding property portfolios, growing revenue, improving service and growing staff as greatest 2023 opportunities

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Jan. 24, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AppFolio, Inc. (NASDAQ:APPF), a leading provider of cloud business management solutions for the real estate industry, today released its inaugural Property Management Benchmark Report, which examines property management industry sentiment and outlook for 2023.

According to responses from nearly 5,000 employees at U.S.-based property management companies, there is a strong sense of optimism – one that significantly surpasses other industries – even as challenges such as delinquencies, hiring difficulties and inflation (the three most frequently cited concerns) persist:

• More than half (52%) intend to hire additional staff
• Four out of five respondents (81%) expect their organization’s revenue to increase in 2023
• Nearly three-quarters (72%) expect net operating income (NOI) to grow
  

“Property managers see the challenges before them, but still view 2023 as a year of growth, whether that means expanding their portfolios, hiring new staff and improving culture, or streamlining and automating existing processes to create a more efficient organization. Notably, there’s a strong focus on staff happiness and hiring new employees — it’s encouraging to see the property management industry contributing to U.S. job growth,” said Shane Trigg, General Manager of Real Estate at AppFolio. “We are thrilled to power the industry leaders that look at the projected challenges of 2023 not just as something to overcome but as opportunities to improve and thrive.”

Other noteworthy takeaways from the 2023 AppFolio Property Manager Benchmark Report include:

• Risks remain, but property managers see more opportunities.
  • Inflation and delinquencies are the two primary concerns across all sizes of residential property management organizations, as cited by nearly half of respondents (46%).
  • Hiring and retaining talent are top of mind for all, but increase in prominence amongst larger organizations with more staff.
  • Expected revenue and NOI increases are driven by opportunities for growth and improvement, led by the addition of new units (cited by 55% of respondents) and improving customer service (42%).
• Improving operations, particularly streamlining financial functions, is key – but motivations vary with organization size.
  • Nearly three in five respondents (59%) working for a company with more than 5,000 units cite cost reduction as a top focus, while just 40% of these respondents note freeing up teams from labor-intensive processes as a top motivation.
  • Across the board, however, respondents want to make financial interactions easier for both residents and the businesses they work with – 46% of all respondents want to process more rent payments online and 42% want to improve their accounts payable process.
• Property managers have room to improve their tech stacks as they scale.
  • Large property management companies are much more likely to use tech built for specific functions. More than half of respondents from organizations with more than 5,000 units use document management and storage (73%), maintenance management (57%), utility management (53%), and CRM (51%) solutions.
  • Fewer than a quarter of all respondents have added smart entry or IoT services (24%) or AI or chatbots for leasing communications (15%) into their existing tech stack, showing room for growth across all organizational sizes as function-specific proptech solutions, like those provided via AppFolio Stack™, become available for integration directly into core property management systems.

Download the 2023 AppFolio Property Manager Benchmark Report to review additional findings and insights.

Survey Methodology
AppFolio surveyed 4,972 employees at U.S.-based property management companies from August 10, 2022 to September 10, 2022.

About AppFolio, Inc.
AppFolio, Inc. is a leading provider of cloud business management solutions for the real estate industry. Our solutions enable our customers to digitally transform their businesses, address critical business operations and deliver a better customer experience. For more information about AppFolio, visit www.appfolioinc.com.