NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — It’s no secret Nashville is growing quickly, and this year we’re on track to see some of the most new apartments in the country.  

A recent study by RentCafe is placing Nashville as one of the top 20 metros for apartment construction, even outpacing Chicago and San Francisco. Researchers say it’s largely thanks to our growing workforce and large employers relocating to Middle Tennessee.   

“It used to be seen as a leisure and hospitality type of destination, but over the course of the last five years that’s changed,” said Doug Ressler, Manager of Business Intelligence at Yardi Matrix.  

Ressler noted employers, like Amazon, and tech hubs, like Oracle, relocating to the area.  

“Nashville has yet to see the impact of those headquarter moves and those employment job moves because they take about four to five years to play out, so you’re just in the beginning phase one.” 

The area is finally starting to see enough supply of apartments to keep up with demand. This year, the metro area as a whole is set to see more than 9,600 new apartments. The study says Nashville is on track to get 4,800 more apartments by the end of the year.  

“In the RentCafe study, a lot of those markets that are getting a lot of apartments; they’re already big cities to begin with,” explained Joel Sanders, Founder and CEO of Apartment Insiders. “Nashville has a large amount of apartments that are about to be delivered as a percentage of its current inventory.” 

The study found Nashville’s outskirts, like Franklin and Antioch, are some of the areas seeing the most boost in inventory. 

“In those suburbs they’re still able to get a higher rent, but it’s still not as high as living downtown. That’s number one. Number two, as a lot of people have gone to working from home or working in hybrid-type environments, the commute’s no longer a factor,” Sanders said.  

Overall, the Nashville metro is projected to see 40% more new construction apartment inventory than it saw in 2021, a key factor in continuing to attract new business. 

“These big companies, or even these medium sized companies that want to relocate to Nashville, they want to know that we can house their people. So Nashville has shown that, hey, if we build the apartments, if the developers build the apartments, Nashville will fill them up,” Sanders said. 

Sanders said the increase in supply is tapering off rents, a much-welcomed relief as renters saw a 24% increase in rents over the last year. Although rents are beginning to stabilize, he doesn’t see them significantly decreasing anytime soon and believes the area is more likely to see rent concessions to incentivize new renters.