Banner Year for Student Housing

The student housing industry continued to see healthy demand and strong fundamentals to another record-breaking performance in Q3 and 2022 overall, according to the new quarterly National Student Housing Report from Yardi Matrix.

The fall 2022 preleasing period ended in September with 96.6 percent of bedrooms at Yardi 200 universities leased. Annual rent growth was 4.1% as of September.

The pace of preleasing was faster for selective universities with higher enrollment. But positive performance was widespread among university types across the country. Twelve universities had double-digit growth in pre-leasing levels in September compared to 2021, with Washington State University (18.9% growth) and the University of Houston (16.4%) topping the list.

At some popular schools with growing enrollments, available student housing supply hasn't been sufficient to house the incoming class. A problem that used to be unique to California schools has now become more widespread.

"While student housing rent growth is starting to decelerate, there is still a significant spread between student housing and multifamily rents, which could support continued growth over the next couple of years," states the report. "The impact of multifamily rent trends on student housing will be stronger in university areas with a prominent shadow market, given the availability of options within a close radius."

To read the full report, including more data and methodology, click here.