Large institutional investors continue to view multifamily real estate favorably and raise their allocations to this sector. It is commonly perceived among institutional investors that multifamily—and multifamily development in particular—is a safer investment relative to other property sectors, a common refrain being “you can always lease it up.” In this article, the authors attempt to validate this statement by examining the distribution of lease-up terms from initial lease-up to stabilization for multifamily developments delivered in the United States between 2008 and 2018. In addition, they investigate the impact of the length of the lease-up period on effective rents. Unfortunately, they do not have underwritten projections for each development to compare with subsequent performance as a mechanism to determine an investment’s success. Despite this gap in the available data, the authors generally find support for the conventional wisdom; most developments are able to lease-up in a relatively expedient fashion, no matter the position in the economic/business cycle. However, effective rent change over the lease-up period varies significantly by point of cycle and lease-up term and is an important factor in the investment performance of multifamily developments. TOPIC:Real estate Key Findings • Multifamily development is considered lower-risk by many investors, relative to other property sectors, as you “can always lease it up”. • Our research confirms this – relatively expedient lease-up is achieved across markets, vintage, property size, etc. • Effective rent growth, on the other hand, is more sensitive to these factors, and varies significantly by lease-up term.