South Boston’s apartment rental market is showing strong demand and limited inventory thus far in 2025. Apartment supply figures have gone up in nearly every Boston neighborhood this year, but in Southie both apartment availability and vacancies are down by significant margins compared to March 2024. This comes as no surprise as South Boston has historically swam against the current of normal rental market behavior in Boston. Still, with inventory down, it comes as a surprise that rent prices have remained mostly level in South Boston year-over-year. These are the trends influencing South Boston’s rental market in 2025.
South Boston Rental Supply Down This Year
South Boston’s real-time availability rate (RTAR) is currently 1.51%, marking a -37.34% decrease from a year ago and a -41.02% decrease over a 2-year span. It’s worth noting that over the past 3 years, the rental market in South Boston exhibited higher than normal seasonal adjustments than we’d gotten used to seeing before the pandemic. However, now it appears that Southie’s rental market is returning to the pre-COVID norms as availability has been even or lower than 2019 levels throughout this year thus far.
South Boston’s real-time vacancy rate is currently at a paltry 0.26%, down -64.86% year-over-year and -71.43% compared to 2 years ago. South Boston’s vacancy rate is currently the second lowest in Boston behind only Charlestown. Demand for South Boston apartments is typically very high, so the neighborhood is no stranger to low vacancy rates. Still, 0.26% is exceptionally low and is a marker of high demand in South Boston.
According to our most recent apartment data in South Boston, the median days on market is 8 days. This is among the lowest median days on market in Boston and is another indicator of strong demand for apartments in Southie. In spite of high demand and low supply, South Boston’s average rent price has remained flat over the past 12 months. Last year in South Boston there was some rental weakness that came in late July and August. It appeared to be that many landlords were out of lease renewal game shape and waited too long to get their units on market. Let’s see if South Boston landlords tighten up their leasing practices this year. Perhaps being spoiled by low turnover and exceptional demand made them think they were invincible – but getting your apartments into the marketplace too late is never a good idea for the landlord.
South Boston Average Rent Prices 2025
The current average rent price in South Boston is $3,652. Southie’s average rent price has increased by +0.77% compared to March 2024 and +1.50% since March 2023. This price growth has been stable in comparison to many other rental markets in Boston, where rent prices have mostly surged by double digit margins over the past 2 years. Another example of Southie being one of the more stable and predictable rental markets in Boston.
Prices for 5 bedroom apartments in South Boston saw the biggest gain year-over-year (+6.93%). Prices for studio apartments in Southie saw the biggest drop compared to a year ago at -3.84%. Prices for 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, and 3 bedroom apartments in South Boston rose by +2.88%, +1.50%, and +3.68% respectively. Across nearly every neighborhood in Boston – we saw big increases in pricing in larger bedroom count apartments. After discussions with numerous renters it is apparent that people are willing to live in bigger groups to save money on common utilities and other ride sharing services and bulk food buying. With a disastrous national energy policy of the last four years and high inflation – this logic seems to make total sense.
2025 South Boston Rental Market Forecast
Look for the rental market to remain tight in South Boston throughout 2025. RTAR typically peaks in the 2-3% range in Southie around April/May, but it may stay below the 2% level in 2025 as demand appears to be stronger this year. We expect average rent prices to increase by a slight margin (1-2%) in 2025 following the trend of the last 2 years. That being said– we are hearing of a lot of tenants complaining that their new utility bills are simply out of control. It is something that is going to have to be examined going forward and it that could have an impact on rental prices and occupancy rates.
We are tracking several newly approved development projects in South Boston which will add much needed housing inventory to South Boston’s tight supply. 295 West First St. promises to add 236 new housing units where an old industrial site exists. This month, another developer submitted plans to convert the old South Boston Saving Bank at 460 West Broadway into a mixed use building with apartment units. We expect to see more new construction projects like this emerge as the new administration tackles inflation and high energy costs in Washington D.C. We’ll continue to cover these housing market trends right here on https://bostonpads.com.
Demetrios Salpoglou
Published March 18, 2025
Demetrios has pulled together the largest apartment leasing team in the Greater Boston Area and is responsible for procuring more apartment rentals than anyone in New England – with over 130k people finding their housing through his services. Demetrios is an avid real estate developer, peak performance trainer, educator, guest lecturer and motivational speaker.
