Why Online Rent Payments are Gaining Ground in Property Management

Millennials are dominating the rental market and using their size and influence to dictate digital and social trends. At more than 80 million strong, the generation is changing the multifamily housing industry from the nation’s largest portfolios to medium and small property management companies. Their desire to live, work and play online has inspired the new market segment “Gen C,” or the “Connected Generation.” This group embraces technology to buy, communicate and connect via digital interactions. Whether paying bills or catching a ride, “Gen C” often pays through digital platforms, usually mobile devices. Paying by paper checks and money orders isn’t much of an option. The Center for Generational Kinetics notes that millennials are paying for products and services different than other generations. In 2016, the research group cited that five million millennials didn’t have a checking account, and a more recent study showed the generation carries very little cash. The center says that businesses that want to attract and retain millennials must make it easy to pay with a credit card. On the heels of the generation is Gen Z, which is multifamily’s next target renter group and one that doesn’t remember a time before the digital world. Today’s renters expect to use electronic payment technology The arrival of these generations and their digital briefcases is transforming the way apartment managers receive rent. Rent payments are more and more going paperless and online, a less risky proposition than manually receiving checks and money orders or processing credit or debit cards in the leasing office. In the last 10 years, renters have come to expect to have access to at least one electronic payment technology. It’s becoming the rule rather than the exception. The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC)/Kingsley Renter Preferences Report revealed an entirely new trend, showing...