CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Researchers at Rentcafe.com revealed that downtown Charlotte added nearly as many new apartments in the past five years as it did in the entire previous decade — a surge that places it 5th nationwide for downtown apartment construction, just behind Atlanta.
New apartment development continues to break records, but in recent years, developers have gradually shifted focus from bustling downtowns to outlying areas.
While many developers focus on the suburbs, some cities are bucking the trend. The Downtown Construction Report highlights where urban cores are still growing — through new builds, adaptive reuse, or both.
Here’s what’s happening in Charlotte:
- 11,031 new apartments were added to downtown Charlotte over the past five years — placing it 3rd among major cities in the South, behind only Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. These units account for 29.7% of all new apartments built in the city during that time, putting Charlotte on pace to exceed the 36.4% downtown share from the previous decade. Notably, all new units are from ground-up construction.
- How does Raleigh compare? The city ranks 17th in the U.S. for downtown apartment construction, having added 6,243 new units to its core this decade. Today, 40.1% of Raleigh’s apartment stock is located downtown — a significant jump from 24.5% in the previous decade.
- National trends tell a different story. The share of new apartments built downtown has dropped from 39.2% last decade to 34.7% today, while adaptive reuse projects have declined from 10% to just 6% over the same period.
For this analysis, the study considered zip codes 28208, 28206, 28204, 28203, 28202 as defining Charlotte’s downtown.
Explore the full Downtown Construction Report here:
https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/
