An Allegion U.S. survey found that almost three-quarters of millennials have long-term plans to live in an apartment building, and that safety and security are top priorities. However, only 26 percent feel secure in their current dwellings, and few (less than 10 percent) have electronic door locks.
The national survey, “Home Safe Home: How Millennial Preferences Are Redefining Multifamily Living,” provides insight into millennials’ preferences for multifamily living and how they prioritize safety and security.
In the survey, 52 percent of respondents would prefer to access their home through tech-based entry methods, including a smartphone, pin code, biometric solution, key fob or card credential.
“Property managers and developers can benefit from looking to new, innovative means of access control to keep pace with tech-savvy millennials,” says Robert Gaulden, director of multifamily channel strategy at Allegion U.S. “The survey reinforces the value of mobile-enabled systems — not only do they bring building residents, service staff and guests convenient all-in-one mobile access control, but they can also simplify and streamline scheduling maintenance requests, managing packages, visitor management and more.”
Multifamily Matters — When looking at millennials’ current and planned living accommodations, respondents indicated that multifamily living will be a mainstay:
- 72 percent of millennials live in an apartment building.
- 75 percent plan to stay in their current residence six months or longer.
Sense of Safety — The majority of millennials do not feel secure in their home nor have the technology installed that they require to feel safe, according to the survey:
- 74 percent of millennials don’t feel secure in their home.
- Few have connected electronic door locks (9 percent).
Delivery Dilemmas — The use of delivery services is significant among millennials, but those surveyed indicated they aren't immune to package thieves:
- 57 percent of millennials use delivery services, such as Amazon (mostly for retail and food deliveries).
- Most receive an average of 1–2 packages per week (63 percent).
- 39 percent had packages stolen from their front door at some point.
Seamless Security — The on-demand millennial generation values seamless convenience and integrated solutions for home security:
- A residential portal app to pay rent, submit maintenance requests, etc. is of the greatest interest for a future residence when it comes to amenities (56 percent).
- 3 in 5 respondents would be more likely to live in a place that provided mobile access control.
- 52 percent prefer to access their home using alternative entry methods (pin code, smartphone, biometric, key fob or card credential).
- 58 percent are comfortable and have given out 1–2 keys or access codes to family or friends.
Property managers, security integrators and developers can help increase multifamily security by incorporating electronic access control. Beyond secure access, these solutions also allow for streamlined visitor management, package delivery and concierge services.
Allegion works with property managers and integrators to provide secure, flexible multifamily offerings that attract today’s millennial renters. For more information, visit multifamily.allegion.com.
