'Renters, this is your year': With soaring vacancy rates across the US, 40% of landlords are forced to sweeten the deal to attract tenants

Ng’s statement is based on stats from Zillow’s 2026 April Rental Report that showed just how prevalent landlord perks are becoming. According to Zillow’s data, 39.8% of rental properties offered some kind of incentive, such as waived fees or a free month of rent, this spring. For comparison, that figure was about one in three last year and one in six before the COVID-19 pandemic.

While every concession will differ, Zillow estimates that renters stand to save $1,930 on average if they snag a free month of rent.

So, what’s driving more landlords to court potential tenants? Simple: There’s too much supply.

According to the Fed, the official rental vacancy rate is sitting at a multi-year high of 7.3%. Ever since this rate bottomed out at 5.6% in Q2 of 2022, it continues to climb as landlords struggle to fill their properties.

Numbers from the National Association of Home Builders show the frenzied pace of building new apartments, with 608,000 completed multifamily units in 2024, 95% of which were built for rent. You’d have to go back to 1986 to find comparable building numbers.​

As Ng explained to NPR, “There’s a lot of apartment buildings hitting the market all at once, and property managers are trying to fill it, and they’re doing it with freebies.”

Some rental locations have greater frustrations

Although the national trend shows a clear shift in power from landlords to renters, you won’t find these deals evenly spread in every state. If there’s still a lot of housing scarcity in your hometown, chances are your landlords still aren’t rolling out the red carpet to attract new tenants.

Currently, some of the worst cities for renters in Zillow’s research include Buffalo, Providence, and New York, all of which had concession ratings below 20%.

On the flip side, Zillow pointed out that areas where the “apartment building boom” really blossomed — especially the Sun Belt — have some of the most generous offerings. The top five cities with juicy concessions include Denver, Charlotte, Dallas, Austin and Nashville, all of which were well over 60% on Zillow.

But even within Sun Belt states, there’s a lot of variation in your odds of getting a sweet deal. For instance, Zillow showed there’s a 53.4% concession rate in Orlando, but that drops to 28.9% in Miami.

Reality check: Rent is still pretty ridiculous

There’s no doubt that renters on average have gained some leverage over the past few years, but that doesn’t make renting “affordable.”