IRVING, TX-Demand for on- or off-campus housing is growing faster than academic institutions’ ability to keep up in the long term, and therein lie the opportunities that panelists at the 4th Annual RealShare Student Housing conference will explore here next week. Nearly 500 industry professionals have confirmed their attendance at the two-day conference, produced by Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com and scheduled for Monday, May 9 and Tuesday, May 10 at the Four Seasons at Las Colinas.

With the student housing market long established, “this conference will discuss the opportunities that are available, whether you’re new to this market and come from a multifamily background or you’re an experienced operator already involved in this sector,” says conference producer Kim Last. Helping to deliver on that promise will be a total of 49 industry experts in both panel discussions and concurrent sessions, up from previous years. There will be also be a pre-conference golf outing on Monday, for which a few openings are still available, and other networking opportunities including a welcome cocktail reception on Monday evening.

This year’s keynote speaker will be Peter Katz, SVP of investments at Marcus & Millichap, discussing “The Year in Acquisitions, Dispositions and the Capital Markets” on Tuesday morning. Katz returns to the podium later in the day to moderate a panel on underwriting. “We have representatives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac along with William Talbot and Michael Orsak, two of the most active players in student housing,” says Last. Talbot and Orsak, respectively the SVP of investments at American Campus Communities and VP of acquisitions at Campus Advantage, will be joined on the panel by Fannie VP Frank Lutz and Richard Martinez, managing regional director at Freddie.

Another panel, “New Student Housing at Commuter Campuses,” will provide insight into the opportunities that will arise along with the dormitories being built by satellite campuses and other schools that traditionally have catered strictly to local populations. The availability of housing, and efforts by commuter schools to add it where none existed before, will play into the rankings of individual colleges and universities, Last points out.

Among the other topics of discussion on Tuesday: the secrets of developers and owners who have thrived amid the recession; the state of student housing REITs; an update on the debt & equity and capital markets; successful leasing strategies; design and development trends; game-changing management strategies; and an investment sales outlook.

Not all of the action for student housing investors is domestic; an afternoon panel will put the spotlight on the sector in the UK. For student housing, “The UK is the second largest market after the US, and tuitions are rising,” says Last. “Although it’s still cheaper to go to school there compared to a $50,000 tuition bill in the US, there are opportunities to enter that market if you’re a trans-Atlantic investor.”

For more information and to register for this year’s conference, click here.

 

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Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. He has been reporting on business since 1988 and on commercial real estate since 2007. He is based at ALM Real Estate Media Group's offices in New York City.