Study tour 2022

Apartmentalize, the largest annual multifamily event in the world, has to be seen to be believed.

A group of UKAA members visited the Apartmentalize conference in San Diego in June. The conference was combined with a study tour of several multi family developments provided by Roomservice by CORT, a supplier of furniture rental in the UK for nearly 40 years and part of CORT, the largest furniture rental provider in the USA and owned by Berkshire Hathaway. It was a hugely valuable and inspiring opportunity to gain insight into American multifamily housing, a market that has twenty-five years more experience than ours.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE KEY THINGS WE DISCOVERED…

Apartmentalize is a trade show on a huge scale with an enormous variety of speakers, exhibitors and innovative ways to engage visitors – it is easy to see why this is the pinnacle event for the industry in the US.

“There aren’t many UK industry events that would warrant someone like Magic Johnson as a main speaker,” commented Ken Ebenezer, Managing Director of Roomservice by CORT, “But Apartmentalize aims to inspire and energise the sector and make attendees proud to work within it.”

The 12,000 attendees came from every associated part of the BTR sector. Our group was struck by the fun and interactive way that speakers and exhibitors engaged with their audiences, the opportunities to network and the sheer range of content to choose from.

“The positive energy at the conference was really contagious as was the belief that there is always a solution” said Lesley Roberts, President of The UKAA.

Rob Clarke, Director, Motive8 continues: “The amount and variety of the presentations and the fact that they weren’t all “property” heavy was great. Presenters really engaged with their audience rather than just delivering a slide show and that was something I took away and will look to incorporate with presentations we deliver in the future. The main trade show was very impressive too, the scale and variety of services on offer was vast and I had some really useful chats with service providers in the US who offer a similar service to us. It was great to share experiences and see how the operations differ to the UK.”