MALVERN, Iowa — A $5.5 million development is bringing 24 new rental homes to Malvern, Iowa, where demand for quality housing has outpaced supply and existing rentals stay fully occupied.
The project, called Florence Apartments, is being built by the Charles E. Lakin Foundation in a town of roughly a thousand people, with construction expected to be complete in early 2028. The development aims to spark new life in a rural community through housing.
Malvern is seeing growing interest from Omaha and out-of-state residents, said Kate McGann, President of Malvern Bank.
"At any given point there is only a few houses on the market in our community. We do have a fair number of apartment rentals or single-family rentals right now, but they are always rented. Our landlords that own rentals in town tell us they get 3-4 calls a day and they just don't have anything," McGann said.
Part of the draw is location. The town sits within an easy commute of the Omaha metro.
"I can get to Old Market faster than my sister can in Gretna, so Malvern is in a good geographic location but also has a lot of amenities," McGann said.
The need extends well beyond Malvern. The non-partisan think tank Common Sense Institute Iowa estimates Iowa will have a deficit of 8,102 homes in 2026 but is expected to resolve its shortage at the end of 2028 under current trends.
That progress, however, is uneven. Major population centers still face measurable housing shortages. Recent permitting has softened and property taxes continue to add a substantial premium to monthly home ownership costs.
Iowa still holds a strong affordability advantage compared with the rest of the country.
As of March 2026, the average Iowan needs to work 38 hours per month to afford a new mortgage payment on a typical new single-family home. This is 14 hours less than the national average. Even so, the cost of owning a home in Iowa has grown 39% faster than wages over the last six years.
The supply picture is improving. In 2025, permitting reached 13,395, the highest level since 2005. But momentum may be slowing. In Q1 2026, Iowa issued 1,749 permits. This is a 26.4% drop from the 2,377 issued in Q1 2025.
The Charles E. Lakin Foundation is working to be part of the solution, with 150 housing projects underway in the region and hopes to expand. John Hoich, Vice President of the Charles E. Lakin Foundation, said shrinking rural towns are a central concern.
"It's these rural towns that are shrinking. We want to do what we can to impact them," Hoich said.
The foundation already has a footprint in Malvern and is taking on all the risk for the development, with the help of some state funding. The project received a $720,000 award through the Iowa Economic Development Authority's Workforce Housing Tax Credit program for fiscal year 2027 — the first Workforce Housing Tax Credit award ever made in Mills County.
The development will include three two-story buildings of eight units each: 12 one-bedroom and 12 two-bedroom apartments, plus two detached garage buildings with 14 enclosed stalls. Planned features include modern finishes, quality appliances, in-unit laundry hookups, secure building access and off-street parking. Through MidAmerican Energy's Commercial New Construction program, the apartments will also include high-efficiency heating and cooling, enhanced insulation, energy-efficient windows and LED lighting to help lower resident's utility costs.
Rent is estimated to range from $1,200 to $1,400 a month.
"I think they'll be like $1,200 for a one bedroom, $1,400 for a 2-bedroom in Omaha you can add about $400 to those numbers. I think it'll be a lot less than those bigger cities," Hoich said.
Hoich said the stakes go beyond construction.
"If you have a place to lay down your head at night, that's the start. If they have a place to do that there's less drug, alcohol, mental illness and different things that happen to people when they don't have a place to live," Hoich said.
The foundation hopes the new units will do more than fill up.
"We're hoping that these brand-new apartments will bring new blood to Malvern, someone that would like to move to Malvern, work in Malvern, and live in Malvern," Hoich said. "We're hoping to grow the population and not just trade places."
The development also gives new life to an underused property. The foundation purchased the former manufactured home park in 2024 and cleared the site. Florence Apartments is named for Florence (Swoboda) Lakin, who grew up in Malvern before marrying Charles E. Lakin of Emerson, Iowa.
Florence Apartments is a separate investment from the foundation's broader Revitalize Southwest Iowa Initiative, through which it has committed approximately $165 million to projects in more than 50 Southwest Iowa communities. Malvern Bank is providing construction financing, and McGann said that access to capital has been a key hurdle in the region.
"It seems like on this side of the river, access to builders is a challenge, access to capital is a challenge so this Lakin Revitalize SW Iowa fund has really done a few things which is provide that access to capital," McGann said.
For McGann, the project fills a long-standing gap.
"Giving residents or future residents another option is definitely just long overdue and something we are very excited about," McGann said.
Leasing is expected to begin in late 2027, with construction complete in early 2028.
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