Some apartment projects slated for delivery in 2015 could be too late to the dance if financing dries up or demand is satiated by the hordes of new rental slated for earlier delivery or already under construction, according to an industry expert.

Projects like Pier 4 and Watermark Seaport on the South Boston waterfront could be faced with a changed financing climate if interest rates rise or demand for apartments drops, said Simon Butler, partner with CB Richard Ellis. Butler recently spoke at a NAIOP event regarding the future of multifamily development.

Although the multifamily market has been the hottest asset class and the only one attracting financing during the recession, those issues could create a "perfect storm" and slow down apartment development in the future, Butler said. While many projects will likely seek a condo exit for many of the units planned, it is still unknown if the condo market will recover to the point where demand for condo units will affect financing.

The apartments that do get built, however, are mostly, if not all, luxury units aimed at large-salaried set. Along the East Coast, those luxury apartment projects are looking more and more like hotels, according to Julie Smith, president of Maryland-based Bozzuto Group, an apartment management firm.

And the rich want even more and more luxury out of their luxury rentals. Gyms are getting bigger and personal gardens are getting more popular. Even the pets are being pampered, with pet grooming stations popping up as part of suburban projects, Smith said.

But design is not all going to the dogs. At MIT, Kent Larson, principal research scientist at the Media Lab, is studying new ways to live in, and build, apartments.

With more people working from home, Larson and his team are looking at new ways to accommodate that trend. One way is to create an apartment with robotic walls and collapsible tables. With its conceptual "transformable apartment," the school is promoting ways to easily turn a unit with multiple rooms into one large space. To accomplish this, the walls would be on electronic tracks that could be moved out of the way to have one big room, and would move back into place for a multi-room apartment. A kitchen table could fold out to accommodate several diners, and then fold back up into the wall out of the way.