Study Finds Birmingham Renters Have an Abundance of Unwanted Amenities

Al Harris
July 17, 2018
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When it comes to renting an apartment in Birmingham, tenants might be paying a little bit more for things they don’t really need. Except when it comes to having place to wash their dirty laundry that is.

According to a new study from Apartment List, Birmingham, Albama apartment properties offer an excess of amenities, compared to the number of renters that are actually looking for those amenities.

The good news is that for the most part Birmingham doesn’t have an “amenity gap”, a scenario in which there is a shortage in amenities that are in high demand. The website analyzed user and property data and found that out of 70 metro areas, renters in 59 cities have an amenity gap for a the 10 amenities it looked at.

But the Birmingham metro falls short on one highly sought after amenity: in-unit laundry.

“In Birmingham, in-unit laundry is the hardest amenity to find; 39% of renters are looking for it, but only 12% of properties have it.” said Chris Salviati.

That’s a gap of 27 percentage points overall. Within the city limits itself the gap is even bigger with 46 of renters seeking in-unit laundry but only 8 percent of properties offering it. The only other amenity that fell short of demand was air conditioning with a gap of 1 percent for the metro and 16 percent for the city proper.

The chart below demonstrates how renter demand and properties differed on the other amenities:

As you can see, cat-friendly apartments are the most over-supplied amenity in Birmingham by 46 percent. There is also a 30 percent surplus when it comes to balconies.

When compared to other cities, Birmingham apartments seekers had lower demand for amenities in general.

“Renters in Birmingham are less demanding than those in other parts of the country, with renter demand below the national average for 6 of the 10 amenities we analyzed,” said Salviati.

Finally, here is a look at which cities have the most demanding renters, to put the situation in Birmingham into some perspective:

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