Using the Student Housing Data that Drives the Sector

The student housing market has evolved even further over the past year. With a growing pool of investors and increasing foreign capital, people are eager to capitalize on the opportunities the sector presents.

The student housing data available can help you do exactly that, but how do you read the data to identify those opportunities? The Sept. 27 Data Panel at this year’s NMHC Student Housing Conference, featuring myself, Taylor Gunn; William Vonderfecht with CBRE; and Dan Major with The Scion Group, will discuss the leading indicators related to student-housing data.

There is more to student housing data than what meets the eye. For performance, supply, demand, demographics and investment/capital markets, this data can be interpreted in a variety of ways. The NMHC session will discuss how these types of data can be utilized to identify trends in today’s student housing market and as changes occur in the future.

Highlights to Expect:

• What has been driving or limiting enrollment growth? We will discuss the types and size of universities that are influencing this and key ways to interpret the data.
  • When you analyze enrollment growth across public four-year, public two-year, private for-profit and private not-for-profit, each illustrates a different growth pattern. During different times throughout history, a few of these experience stronger growth relative to the norm, but one type has consistently experienced positive growth.
• How to interpret demographics? There is more to positive demand than a growing college-age population. We will highlight some of the other factors that are driving demand.
• The supply trends that have evolved and stayed the same.
  • The volume of new supply has remained relatively consistent since 2015, but the universities receiving supply continue to grow and spread to different types of institutions across the country.
• A look at how the industry is performing today and the impact of new supply in certain markets
  • After some moderation in year-over-year leasing velocity, the industry still had a strong year. However, a few university markets illustrated a different trend. The session will expand on how to interpret the softening performance at some universities.
• The trends in overall transaction volume and cap rates.
• Examine what types of universities and assets are achieving higher or lower cap rates.
• Trends in the types of buyers and sellers.

Comprehensive student housing data can be the key to unlocking the ROI opportunities prevalent in the student housing market. Our panel will attempt to make navigation of this data easier to understand.

Check back with this blog in a couple of weeks to read what the panelists said.