Institutions Sign Up for Student Housing

Student housing is “less economically sensitive” than apartments, says TH Real Estate’s Tom Park.

NEW YORK CITY—Less sensitive to the ebb and flow of the economic cycle than conventional apartments, student housing is also a considerably smaller investment class. Citing data from Real Capital Analytics, TH Real estate estimates that 2016 saw $9 billion of student housing transactions, compared to about $140 billion worth of trades in the multifamily sector. Yet the 12-month tally for apartments represents a decline of nearly 7% from 2015, while student housing volume grew by about 50% year over year from the previous high water mark for the sector.

Observes Tom Park, senior director, strategy & research at TH Real Estate, says that rental growth in student housing has proven to be “less volatile than that of conventional apartments, partially as a result of the sector being less economically sensitive. Results for some of the largest players in the market show rental growth volatility, as indicated by the standard deviation, was lower than conventional apartments and capital expenditures are in line with those of conventional apartments.”