We think about years a lot in business. It is the period of the P&L, the period over which we think about tax, salaries, bonuses, you name it. Our focus on what happens over the course of 12 months can sometimes obscure the longer narrative that plays out over multiple years. That has been the experience pulling together this year’s 2026 edition of the 20for20 Annual Survey, which is released today.
For those unfamiliar with the project, each year we interview 20 senior executives: 10 COOs and 10 heads of technology. We take the results of 20 highly structured interviews and distill them into insights that, year over year, tell us what is changing in multifamily operations and technology.
In many ways, though, this year is less about what changed and more about what is evolving. When asked (two months ago) about the outlook for the year to come, it is striking how similar the responses were to the same predictions in each of the two previous years. Although optimism has tracked upwards through the last three years, each year, when taken individually, was anticipated as a tough first half followed by a late recovery. “Excess capacity will burn off toward the end of the year...” “Occupancies will stabilize, and rent growth will start to recover...” and so on.
This year, a word came up that is new to these interviews, and it was chosen independently by multiple leaders to describe the operating environment. The word was exhaustion.
The word, and the sentiments attached to it, teach us about the current part of the cycle in which we find ourselves: a sustained period of focus on NOI and its drivers is countercultural in multifamily. We do deals. We onboard and off-board properties. There is always a lot going on, and assuming we do our job well, the rewards are great. But the grind of running a business during a period defined by discipline rather than deal flow has taken a toll on leaders and on teams.
Fix in ‘26
At the same time, some things have been edging closer to some kind of culmination. As we report this year, the pattern for centralization—a subject of substantial change in the last few editions of 20for20—is now looking increasingly settled. A general formula that roughly covers leasing, administrative services and maintenance seems to have emerged, and looks more stable than it has before.
AI, unsurprisingly, had a huge year in 2026. It is startling how different the report is from one year ago. We have seen not just a huge increase in functional scope, but also a sea change in attitudes, particularly from those in charge of technology in the companies interviewed.
These changes are mostly due to a familiar confluence of factors. Slower property trading means that organizations have a little more bandwidth to focus on changing things. Once centralization is done, it does not need to be done again. The progress of AI is inevitable, and it is starting to become clear how it is changing the industry.
Nowhere is it likely to have a bigger impact than on a familiar 20for20 hobby horse: the tech stack. Perspectives on how technology should work, and how tech stacks should be organized, are changing, largely because of the disruptive influence of AI and some other important developments that we discuss in detail in the paper.
There is plenty more to get your teeth into. Revenue management continues its previously unseen high levels of churn as lawsuits lurch toward culmination. Fraud continues to be the hottest of applications, but the interviews provide signs that the industry is learning how to do this properly. The industry appears to be waking up to the possibilities of loyalty and rewards, and how the concept is already influencing the renter experience.
Overall, this year’s survey tells the story of a kind of maturing, or settling into new and exciting technologies. The ethos of “fix in ’26,” from which organizations aspire to accelerate as the year goes on, finds visual expression this year’s cover photo.
Download your free copy now and get involved in the conversation about what is changing, and perhaps even more importantly, what is not.
