Ng’s statement is based on stats from Zillow’s 2026 April Rental Report that showed just how prevalent landlord perks are becoming (2). According to Zillow’s data, 39.8% of rental properties offered some kind of incentive, such as waived fees or a free month of rent, this spring. For comparison, that figure was about one in three last year and one in six before the COVID-19 pandemic.While every concession will differ, Zillow estimates that renters stand to save $1,930 on average if they snag a free month of rent.So, what’s driving more landlords to court potential tenants? Simple:

There’s too much supply.

According to the Fed, the official rental vacancy rate is sitting at a multi-year high of 7.3%. Ever since this rate bottomed out at 5.6% in Q2 of 2022 (3), it continues to climb as landlords struggle to fill their properties.

Numbers from the National Association of Home Builders show the frenzied pace of building new apartments, with 608,000 completed multifamily units in 2024, 95% of which were built for rent. You’d have to go back to 1986 to find comparable building numbers (4).​As Ng explained to NPR (1), “There’s a lot of apartment buildings hitting the market all at once, and property managers are trying to fill it, and they’re doing it with freebies.”


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/economy/renters-this-is-your-year-with-soaring-vacancy-rates-across-the-us-40-of-landlords-are-forced-to-sweeten-the-deal-to-attract-tenants/ar-AA25YcS9

Rentcels stay winning. Notice how the homecels have been awfully quiet lately?

Date Event Price
10/1/2020 Sold $1,925,000-3.7%$276/sqft

Sell for more on Zillow.
Standard listing$3,368,500 2% more+$67,370With Zillow Showcase(estimated)$3,435,870

Life is pretty good here for this homecel.

The Zillow estimate is actually low when compared to the comps in my area. Home across the street (same builder) just went for $3.925M

Yeah but would you actually recommend that someone else pay $3.95M for your house right now? Or just rent something similar for 25% of the cost?

Meanwhile, I increased my rentcels rent on 6/1. Next scheduled increase, 1/1/27. Srs, vry srs.

I think about how much it cost to buy and maintain a house, and then the risks and headaches involved, unless I'm making a good amount, I'm going to invest somewhere else.

The Eviction Moratorium Biden passed and then kept on for about 2 years a lot of landlords got burned bad. It was quite common that renters turned squatters and were just not paying anything and trashed the places knowing the landlords couldn't do anything about it.

Rentcels stay winning. Notice how the homecels have been awfully quiet lately?

I just jacked my rent up an average of $80 a week across four properties - another $15k income for absolutely nothing more than owning property

Yeah, it's fucking terrible lmao

You can wipe your tears with plastic spinach

Illegals flood the country and rent goes up. They start getting deported and mysteriously rent goes down.

makes me wonder if this is really the cause.

It is. You are also paying for it in some cases.

A lot of truth here. A landchad must be particular on who he rents to. Any signs of "changing consumer habits", you rent to someone else. My rentals have all been rented for 5+ years straight by renting to young professionals. Has worked for me so far, but the passive income that can come from investing in stocks is goat. Srs, vry srs.

I have no data to back it up but given how many are really in this country relative to how many have been deported, doesn't seem like it would be enough to affect anything substantially..