Chicago Rental Market Puts Smart Resident Experience in the Spotlight

ButterflyMX, the leading provider of smartphone-based access control technology for multifamily, commercial, student housing, and gated properties, today released data showing how proptech is supporting changing resident behavior as a greater number of people continue to spend more of their days at home.

“The last few years have drastically altered the landscape of the multifamily space, with residents relying on their apartment and common spaces to accommodate greater swaths of their life, work and downtime,” said Aaron Rudenstine, CEO of ButterflyMX. “This change isn’t just a mindset, but a series of behaviors. Property owners and managers that understand this change and take steps to support the changing nature of multifamily spaces, are better positioned to drive retention now and into the future.”

To track and understand resident behavior, ButterflyMX analyzed data gathered from its smartphone-based video intercom, which manages property access into more than 39,000 apartment units in the Chicagoland area, accounting for more than 5% of all multifamily units in the market. This includes developments by Becovic Management Group, Greystar, MO2 Properties, Reside Living, and Sonder.

ButterflyMX reported the following trends in the Chicago market:

1. 350% increase in package deliveries over the same time period in 2021, which is trending above the than national average of 82% higher package deliveries across the ButterflyMX platform.
2. Deliveries account for less than 1% of all access activity, yet packages create a significant pain point for residents and building staff, requiring significant time and precious space to accept, store and manage. With 76% of multifamily residents nationally receiving 3 or more packages per month, deliveries can become a significant distraction if not effectively controlled.
3. Mobile door releases, which give residents the ability to securely allow guests into their building without requiring the resident to be on site, are on track to double across ButterflyMX’s platform by the end of the year.

“With rents and occupancy rates surging in Chicago’s downtown and throughout the greater metro area, building owners and developers are looking for novel ways to improve resident experience — and therefore, resident retention,” said Cyrus Claffey, founder of ButterflyMX. “Through our access platform, we are able to take a seemingly innocuous reality of multifamily living — providing access to invited guests and other third parties — and make it seamless and intuitive, giving residents greater control and improving security for everyone in the space.”

Founded in 2014, ButterflyMX pioneered simple and convenient mobile-based property access by launching the world’s first smart video intercom. Today, ButterflyMX is relied upon by the most trusted names in multifamily and commercial real estate to provide a simple property access experience into and throughout their buildings. Their products include video intercoms, key pads, key lockers, elevator controls, package rooms, and access controllers all designed to provide buildings with a unified property access experience that can be managed from the ButterflyMX OS — an online system for issuing access permissions, reviewing entry logs, and integrating other building services provide access control.

About ButterflyMX

ButterflyMX is your complete property access solution, providing a secure, convenient, and cost-effective way to manage and grant access on the go. Empower your tenants to open doors, gates, and elevators with a smartphone and ensure they never miss a visitor or delivery. Enjoy easy installation and cut costs by eliminating building wiring and in-unit hardware, and save time by integrating with popular access control and property management systems. Join the 8,500+ multifamily, commercial, gated community, and student housing properties that have made access simple with ButterflyMX. Join us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.