35,000 apartments in the works in Tampa

Despite the seemingly constant development of new multifamily rental product in the Tampa area since the official end of the economic recession in 2011, the market may just be warming up.

In a winter 2018 report entitled “Tampa Bay's Apartment Boom,” California-based commercial real estate research firm Yardi Systems Inc. notes 7,500 new apartments are now under construction in the Tampa area, which also includes St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Plant City, Lakeland and part of Pasco and Hernando counties.

But another 27,900 apartments are either in the “planning or permitting stages,” Yardi notes, developments being pushed forward by the addition of 33,500 jobs between October 2016 and October 2017 and unemployment of 3.3%.