Apartment market researchers say by year's end many renters' markets will yield to landlords as the economy improves, occupancy rises and rents begin to rebound.

During the slow years, however, property owners put into place a host of amenities to attract tenants and even as the market improves for landlords, rents rise and concessions disappear, renters can bank on rental homes in communities offering more than just an apartment.

The National Real Estate Investor recently surveyed what's hot and what's not reflecting revamped approaches to old amenities.

Here's what to look for when you can't negotiate for cheaper rent.

• Cafes with broadband or wireless Internet connections. An improvement over stodgy business centers, the new socializing centers where residents can bring their laptops, PDAs and multi-function cell phones and tap into the Internet, conduct business, or just meet over a double espresso. Under any name, coffee bars, cyber cafes, or more specifically, Starbucks, the hang outs come with overstuffed sofas and flat screen TVs in addition to copiers and fax machines.

• Upgraded Fitness Centers. Universal in top of the line apartment communities, fitness centers often have the look of full fledged health clubs. Hot tubs, Jacuzzi's and tanning tables are less common, replaced with high-end electronic treadmills that pair television monitors with pulse and heart rate monitors. Others have added mirrors, ballet rails and yoga classes. Sports courts for basketball, racquetball and the like also double as meeting spaces.

• Off-site Services. The fitness centers and cafe's may or may not be offsite, but many developers include ground floor retail space for Starbucks, Quiznos, Subway, Blockbuster, dry cleaners, sports bars, restaurants and mini-markets offering everything from groceries and ready-made meals to floral arrangements. The retailers often offer discounts to residents. Other communities arrange for discounts at off-site health clubs and other facilities.

• Discounted Packages. To make life easier, some communities offer through venders discounted packages of broadband Internet access along with telephone and cable television services. Others offer streamlined access to residential services including change of address, utility connections, newspaper or magazine subscriptions, appliance rental or renter's insurance. Tenants can tap the services at their leisure, 24 hours a day.

• Lease Equity. Aware that many tenants are likely to become homeowners, some communities partner with home builders and real estate brokers to offer limited lease-equity programs that offer a rent refund toward the purchase of a home when the lease is up.

• Unit Amenities. New rental housing complexes are more and more often outfitted with granite countertops, hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances and other "wow" factors to get tenants in the door.

Published: August 18, 2004

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.