# An empire of one-bedroom apartments

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2025-07-20

austin, bobby-fijan, multi-family, development, housing, apartment, condo, family-sized-apartments, new-homes

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Everybody wants a 3 bedroom condo or apartment until they see what they cost. We've [spoken about this before](https://brandondonnelly.com/everybody-wants-a-3-bedroom-condo-until-they-see-what-they-cost). We know that the barrier is cost (i.e. affordability) and that many cities have more cost-effective alternatives. The result is that developers have a strong incentive to build smaller 1-bedroom apartments. And by strong incentive, I mean that it might be the only way to pencil a new project.

I think some people believe that developers are only doing this to profit maximize and that they _could_ build more family-sized apartments if only they really wanted to. But it's not that simple. There needs to be a market for it at rental rates that can generate a positive margin for developers.

[![User Avatar](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/b6e7fd1f04731a95f692f809acc35ccf.jpg)](https://twitter.com/bobbyfijan)

[Bobby Fijan](https://twitter.com/bobbyfijan)

[@bobbyfijan](https://twitter.com/bobbyfijan)

[![Twitter Logo](https://paragraph.com/editor/twitter/logo.png)](https://twitter.com/bobbyfijan/status/1946553358359130149)

America’s cities are becoming empires of one-bedrooms  
  
This chart shows how apartment developers have changed the unit types built in Austin over past 25 years  
  
From 2000-2005, >50% units built were 2BRs  
From 2021-2025, <25% were 2BRs

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/48e167381740760a74552b087ce75524.png)

 [![Like Icon](https://paragraph.com/editor/twitter/heart.png) 50](https://twitter.com/bobbyfijan/status/1946553358359130149)[

8:51 AM • Jul 19, 2025

](https://twitter.com/bobbyfijan/status/1946553358359130149)

To show just how strong these market forces are, [here's a chart from Bobby Fijan](https://x.com/bobbyfijan/status/1946553358359130149) showing how Austin has changed its unit mix over the past 25 years. From 2000 to 2005, more than 50% of new apartments were 2 beds. But from 2021 to 2025, this shared dropped to less than 25%, and studio and 1 beds now make up nearly 80% of the new multi-family market.

This is the new construction market in the vast majority of North American cities today.

_Cover photo by_ [_Jeremy Doddridge_](https://unsplash.com/@jeremydoddridge?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash) _on_ [_Unsplash_](https://unsplash.com/photos/aerial-view-of-city-DnHUeDYzpUo?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/an-empire-of-one-bedroom-apartments)*