As founders building SaaS solutions for multifamily operators, we’ve watched the industry wrestle with the same questions that reshaped retail, media, and travel a decade ago: 

  • How do you turn a transaction (in this case, a lease) into a relationship? And,
  • How do you make your product feel more like a membership?

The truth is, those questions have already been answered — by brands that have used subscription-based models to transform short-term customers into long-term loyalists.

From streaming services to doorstep meal kits and curated retail memberships, nearly every consumer category out there has been reshaped by subscriptions. The logic is simple: deliver consistent value, earn predictable revenue, and grow by deepening customer relationships rather than chasing volume.

The real breakthrough wasn’t in how these brands charge customers, but in how they build loyalty. Subscription businesses stopped optimizing for one-time transactions and started optimizing for customer lifetime value. They learned to ask not, “How do we sell this product today?” but “How do we keep earning someone’s business tomorrow?”

That same shift is starting to happen in multifamily. Forward-thinking operators are borrowing directly from subscription models — focusing less on the lease as a transaction and more on the relationship it represents. To see how this mindset in multifamily is translating into lasting revenue, you only need to look at the subscription playbook that inspired it.

What Subscription Models Get Right About Loyalty

Successful subscription-based companies share a few core traits worth studying:

  • They prove value every month. Customers stay when the experience keeps earning its price. Netflix does this by pairing constant content refreshes with a new ad-tier to expand reach without undercutting premium members. Spotify applies the same logic with evolving, algorithmic playlists and discovery tools that keep listening habits alive.
  • They reduce friction. Cancellations and re-signups are pain points — so the best subscriptions build seamless renewal experiences. Chewy’s AutoShip subscription program, now responsible for over 80% of its total sales, does this by swapping effort for empathy and personal touches that make customers feel remembered.
  • They personalize. Using data to understand behavior and preferences allows them to deliver precisely what the customer needs, when they need it — like Stitch Fix, which blends AI with human stylists to refine each delivery based on ongoing feedback.
  • They create ecosystems. Once a subscriber is in, complementary services — from loyalty perks to new tiers — extend both satisfaction and revenue potential. Apple One and Amazon Prime prove the power of bundling. By combining multiple services under one membership, they increase lifetime value while making exit less appealing.
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Does any of the above sound familiar? It should. In many ways, the apartment lease is already one of the oldest subscription models around — just one that hasn’t historically acted like it.

Multifamily’s Hidden Subscription Model

Every resident already pays a recurring fee for continued access to a product they value: their home. They can cancel anytime (with notice). They may even upgrade, downgrade, or “churn” to a competitor at the end of a term.

Yet despite operating on subscription principles, most multifamily portfolios still behave like one-time sellers. Operators spend heavily on acquisition each year — $25 billion industry-wide in turnover and marketing costs — but lose about half their customers annually. That churn would bankrupt most modern subscription businesses. 

The result is what we call “breakage.” Every time a resident leaves, the operator loses not just the rent but the relationship. Under current multifamily models, the next interaction — whether at a sister property across town or within the same portfolio — usually starts from zero. 

This constant reset can’t remain the norm. Operators who fix it will capture what the industry has been missing for decades: compounding loyalty and lifetime value.

Why Resident Lifetime Value Matters More Than Ever

In an environment of high acquisition costs and thin margins, extending resident lifetime value (LTV) is one of the most reliable levers for growth. Consider:

  • The current LTV of 95% of multifamily residents is ~$21,000 (based on today’s national average of 18 months tenancy at ~$1,750 in rent).
  • That $21,000 reflects a mix of one-year stays and renewals. Annually, about half of residents with a 12-month lease move out after just one year, and the other half stay.
  • If a resident renews even once, their average LTV stretches to ~$26,000. That’s before any ancillary revenue is factored in.
  • Retaining the resident, of course, means also saving on costs to re-fill the unit. Between ILS spend and vacancy loss, operators are losing an average of $15K per qualified resident who churns.

Now, imagine a world where residents stay within your portfolio — moving up, down, or across your communities — for years. Each additional lease term compounds the resident’s LTV, increasing revenue and reducing volatility.

To get there, more operators are taking a page from subscription brands: using renewal strategy not just to hold occupancy steady, but to build recurring, portfolio-wide revenue models that scale.

From Leases to Loyalty Programs

Across the industry, operators are starting to think less like landlords and more like membership brands — layering subscription-style services like bundled Wi-Fi, furniture packages, pet care, and flexible payments directly onto the lease. These recurring, opt-in offerings create convenience for residents while expanding predictable, ancillary revenue per unit.

The next evolution isn’t just about adding services — it’s about embedding more resident value into every transaction. Fintechs like Bilt Rewards highlight how quickly payments are becoming a new frontier for loyalty. Bilt’s new partnership with Venmo lets renters earn points on rent and even mortgage payments, a market first and a clear signal that payments and loyalty ecosystems are converging.

But this begs the question: whose loyalty are we actually building? When rewards — and the data behind them — live with a third-party platform, operators risk losing ownership of their most valuable relationship. The goal isn’t to hand resident loyalty to a rewards app; it’s to build your own ecosystem of recognition and retention, where renewal moments strengthen your brand, not someone else’s.

That’s exactly what Renew’s Revenue Ecosystem is built to enable: a behind-the-scenes system that helps operators create new revenue streams while deepening residents’ brand loyalty. By helping residents personalize how they live and feel recognized for their tenure, operators can keep more residents in-portfolio for longer, driving higher lifetime value.

The hospitality world has already proven this model. Travelers don’t just book a Marriott room; they join Bonvoy. Imagine a resident moving from Denver to Dallas within the same operator’s portfolio and keeping their “member” status — waived fees, seamless transfers, tenure perks. The operator retains revenue, the resident feels remembered and enjoys the ease of continuity, and the relationship compounds across markets.

That’s how multifamily evolves from managing leases to managing loyalty at scale.

Operationalizing Loyalty: Lessons Multifamily Can Apply Today

The mechanics of loyalty are universal. Subscription brands use them to retain customers; multifamily operators can use them to retain residents. Whether your portfolio spans 2,000 or 200,000 units, the same operational principles apply:

  1. Track and act on engagement, not just occupancy. Streaming platforms don’t just count subscribers — they monitor usage to predict churn. Operators can do the same by tracking service requests, sentiment, and responsiveness.
  2. Design renewals as moments of value. Instead of treating renewal notices as paperwork, use them as personalized touchpoints to remind residents what’s new, what’s improved, and why staying is the smarter choice.
  3. Bundle experiences. Consider offering utilities, cleaning, or coworking access as flexible add-ons — subscription “tiers” that align with evolving resident lifestyles.
  4. Measure lifetime ROI per resident. Marketing metrics like cost-per-lease matter less than cost-per-lifetime. Operators that double renewal rates cut acquisition waste and boost NOI with minimal new spend.
  5. Build feedback loops. The best subscriptions evolve with the customer. Asking residents what they’d pay for — then actually implementing it — creates a sense of co-ownership that strengthens retention.

The Future of Renting: Relationship-Based Revenue

Multifamily’s next era of value creation will depend as much on relationship management as on real estate management. Operators who think like subscription leaders are reframing what they sell — not square footage, but continuity, convenience, and community.

That evolution is already taking shape. Renewals are becoming moments of connection, portfolios are becoming networks, and retention is becoming a discipline of its own. The result: an industry built on nurturing loyalty rather than accepting turnover.

Renew is helping operators get there — with technology that turns renewal strategy into a resident-experience strategy, and resident relationships into lasting revenue.

Explore how Renew’s Renewal Management System helps operators build loyalty that lasts.

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