October 2026 New Build Board Report: Median Special at 8.7 Weeks

Here’s where the San Antonio new-build market stood on Oct 25, 2026. If you’re shopping now, the short version is this: specials are deep, fees are wide-ranging, and year two deserves as much attention as month one. This report covers the 111 ground-up communities on our board across Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, and Kendall counties.

Every number below is dated and sourced. Board figures come from our feed on Oct 25, 2026. Market figures come from the sources named beside them.

The headline: a median special of 8.7 weeks

The median special on our board was 8.7 weeks free on Oct 25, 2026. Six in ten listings, 60%, offered 8 weeks or more. That’s a lot of free rent, and it reflects how many new buildings are still filling their first units. Our San Antonio apartment specials page lists each one with base rent and year two beside it.

The wider market tells the same story. Vacancy counting lease-ups was 14.9% in Q3 2026 (CoStar via San Antonio Report), down from about 16% at the start of the year, which was the highest of any major U.S. market. Among stabilized buildings, about one-third of units carried a concession, with an average discount of 11.6% (RealPage, January and May 2026).

What does 8.7 weeks mean in dollars? On a $1,200 base rent, 8.7 weeks free is worth about $2,409 over a 12-month lease, or roughly $201 a month. That brings net effective rent to about $999. It’s real money. It’s also the part of the deal that disappears at renewal.

The special isn’t the price

Net effective spreads the free weeks across the term. True monthly adds required fees. Year two starts over from base rent. We show all three for every building.

Fees: $52.38 to $320.50 a month

We surveyed required fees at 10 market-rate buildings on the board using each community’s own fee calculator on Oct 25, 2026. Required fees ran from $52.38 to $320.50 a month. The median was $120.81 a month, or $1,449.72 a year.

That spread matters more than most renters expect. Two buildings with the same base rent and the same special can differ by more than $250 a month once required fees are in. The most common fee types were trash or valet trash, technology packages, pest control, package handling, and billing or admin charges. None of them show up in a weeks-free banner.

Our guide to required apartment fees breaks down each type and where fee sheets tend to hide.

Year two: about 20% higher at the median special

Renewal is usually priced from base rent, not from the special. So when the free weeks run out, month 13 starts over at base plus fees. At the 8.7-week median, that works out to year two running about 20% higher than year one’s true monthly.

Here’s our labeled illustration, with values as of Oct 25, 2026. At Prose On The Range in Far Northwest, $1,215 base rent with up to 10 weeks free on a 12-month lease came to $981.35 net effective. Add $52.38 in required fees and true monthly was $1,033.73. Year two at a flat renewal was $1,267.38, a $233.65 jump, or about 23%.

Number	Prose On The Range (illustration, Oct 25, 2026)
Base rent	$1,215.00
Net effective (10 weeks free, 12 months)	$981.35
True monthly (plus $52.38 fees)	$1,033.73
Year two (0% change)	$1,267.38
Jump at renewal	$233.65 (+23%)

That’s not a reason to skip a deep special. It’s a reason to budget for month 13 before you sign. Our guide on the year-two rent jump shows the 0% and +3% scenarios.

Area snapshot

Here’s how the three largest tracked areas looked on Oct 25, 2026. These are feed values and change daily.

• New Braunfels: 20 tracked buildings, the largest area on the board. Lowest studio or one-bedroom after the special from $746, with a typical special of 8.7 weeks. NBU utilities. See New Braunfels.
• Far Northwest: 16 tracked buildings, from $787 after the special. Deep lease-up specials along Loop 1604 West, Bandera Road, and Culebra Road. See Far Northwest.
• Downtown: 10 tracked ground-up buildings, from $1,049 after the special, with shallower specials of about 3.7 weeks. See Downtown.

The Lackland and Kelly area had 2 tracked buildings and no market-rate new build. The closest tracked market-rate new builds were Citadel Urban and Prose Vista West, about 10 and 11 minutes to Luke East Gate in free-flow traffic.

What’s next for supply

Deliveries peaked at 6,877 units in 2025, and about 2,000 are expected in 2027 (CoStar). Fewer new buildings opening means less pressure to discount over time, and tightening is expected in late 2027 and 2028. Specials won’t vanish overnight, since many buildings are still in lease-up, but the trend is toward shallower concessions as the pipeline thins.

If you’re timing a move, read when to sign a lease in San Antonio’s 2026 to 2028 market.

What we’ll watch in November

Three things will shape next month’s report. First, whether the median special holds near 8.7 weeks as winter leasing slows. Second, how many buildings move from lease-up toward stabilization, which usually trims specials. Third, the SH 130 toll change on Nov 11, 2026, which raises a daily commute from Seguin to $464.10 a month and may shift demand toward closer areas. We’ll report each with dates and sources.

About the data

Our board covers ground-up new construction with first move-ins from 2023 to 2027. We exclude conversions, renovations, and renamed older buildings. Stale prices hide, and expired or truncated specials don’t publish. A monthly CSV of this report is planned once the dataset template is ready.

Prices change daily. We pull them every morning, and they can change by lunch. If a building in this report doesn’t match what you see on a call, tell us and we’ll send what’s actually open, the same day.

Want this month’s numbers for your list? Get my shortlist and we’ll confirm the special and fee sheet with each office the same day. Or compare specials side by side on the specials page.