Renters near Millcreek's Brickyard Plaza are getting free months of rent and gift cards as Salt Lake metro landlords compete to fill new apartments.

Element 31 at Brickyard, a 208-unit complex at 1243 E. Brickyard Road near the plaza, was advertising up to four weeks of free rent on Sept. 9, with base rents starting at $1,312 for a studio and up to $2,448 for a two-bedroom, according to RentCafe. The building, constructed in 2016, is managed by Wasatch Property Management.

The deals are not unique to Brickyard. Across the Salt Lake City metro, eight to 12 weeks of free rent have become common at newly built properties, often paired with gift cards or cash incentives, according to a December 2025 report commissioned by the Rental Housing Association of Utah. Zillow data from April 2026 showed 62.5% of apartment listings in the metro offered some form of concession, compared to a nationwide average of 39.8%, as The Salt Lake Tribune reported Sept. 8.

The Tribune's Shreyas Laddha toured eight properties in August, including Element 31 at Brickyard, where the concession at the time was one free month. That was the lowest offer on his tour.

Tyler Branstetter, a leasing agent at Camber Apartments in Salt Lake City who has worked in the field for three years, told the Tribune the shift has been rapid. "When I first started, there were no concessions and I think they developed a lot of communities in the last couple of years, so it's gotten really competitive with concessions," he said.

The concession wave grew out of a building boom. But the pipeline may be slowing. In Salt Lake County, only 1,268 apartment units were permitted in 2024, far below the 4,900 needed to meet annual demand, the Rental Housing Association reported. A July 2025 report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah warned that the permit decline could produce "a tight rental market with falling vacancy rates and rising rents by 2027-2028."

Permit activity has since rebounded. Statewide, 9,683 apartment units were permitted in 2025, more than double the 2024 figure and the third-highest total on record, according to the association's May 2026 report.

Paul Smith, executive director of the Rental Housing Association of Utah, said in December 2025 that Salt Lake City "is building a significant amount of housing, but the data show we're still just barely keeping pace with demand." The association projected the metro's vacancy rate would decline from 6.9% toward roughly 6% by the end of 2028, with fewer concessions and modest rent increases along the way.

For Millcreek residents weighing a move, the fine print matters. The Tribune found that concessions at the properties toured were first-year only, and breaking a lease in the first year meant repaying the concessions plus at least two months of rent.

Millcreek's median single-family home price hit $833,000 in the second quarter of 2026, according to a Deseret News report on Salt Lake Board of Realtors data. The average rent across all unit types in Salt Lake County barely budged in 2024, rising less than 1% to $1,593, according to the Gardner Institute.

Renters interested in current deals at Element 31 at Brickyard can check listings on RentCafe or contact Wasatch Property Management directly.