A recent survey of multifamily residents nationwide conducted by J Turner Research on behalf of Multifamily Executive, shows key findings of what residents most want in their apartment and community.

The survey, dubbed "Resident Lifestyle Preferences: An Insight," included 12 large apartment firms, comprising 707 properties across the country, with 27,642 responses received in total.

Several questions in the exclusive lifestyle-focused survey pertain to the wants and needs of residents both in their units and throughout their community, such as the importance of quietness and what stores they would most like to see in their neighborhood.

Here are some of the results:

Desired Quietness
Quitness isn't often thought of as an amenity, and yet it's what renters value most. On a scale from zero to 10 (10 being most important), multifamily residents rated quietness in their building as its most important factor, with an 8.73 score overall. This was a higher showing than location-based factors such as walkability, or in-unit features such as energy-efficient appliances.

"This is an amenity that you don't think of very often, but it can start with design, and then development, and can even be marketed from an operational standpoint," said Joseph Batdorf, president of J Turner Research, in presenting the findings at the Multifamily Executive Conference Sept. 23. "Quietness is extremely important."

Broken down by generation, Baby Boomers ranked quietness the highest in importance with a score of 9.16 out of 10. Millennials ranked quietness of least importance with a score of 8.5.

Neighborhood Store Preferences
When asked what types of retail and entertainment residents would like to see in their neighborhood, 73 percent of residents said a grocery store was their top desire.

"The interesting part of that is it was across all demographics, very very strong and very high, there's no exception to that," said Batdorf..

The second choice was specialty restaurant/cafe, and there was some difference in demographics on that choice: Millennials were much more likely to choose it (at 70 percent) than the older demographic cohorts. The least important feature to residents in their neighborhood is a sporting goods store, which only 13 percent of resident respondents checked.

Popular Keywords in Survey Suggestions
Aside from more obvious terms used frequently in open-ended survey suggestions like "apartment" and "complex," respondents used several keywords alluding to features and concerns most important to them. And by far, the most popular keyword mentioned in open-ended suggestions is "parking" with 2,003 appearances throughout 27,642 surveys. The next closest community feature top-of-mind with residents was "pool."  

Read more about resident responses from the Concept Community Survey.