LAS COLINAS, TX—There’s a huge influx of equity looking to enter the student housing space, but the hot money—that is, the kind that’s chasing a trade—may not be a positive for the business. That’s just one of the things Brian Thompson, an SVP in the acquisitions group of Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, told Real Estate Forum editor-in-chief Sule Aygoren Carranza during the recent RealShare Student Housing 2012 conference.

• Student housing is resilient, but your view of the space depends on the capital behind you. For patient capital, the long term looks good.
• Despite the appetite for student housing, cap rates are already at historic lows, there’s not much change they’ll compress any further.
• Public universities tend to offer more opportunities to provide housing for students.