DALLAS—Owners and managers of privately owned student housing properties have reason for cheer: leasing and preleasing rates are both up in advance of the fall semester, Axiometric says. The pickup in leasing numbers occurs amid a drop-off in product delivery compared to 2014's record pace.

About 76.6% of beds in existing student housing properties were leased as of May, according to the Dallas-based apartment metrics firm's student housing research. That represented an increase of 115 basis points from a year earlier.

On the face of it, new construction has seen an even healthier increase in preleasing. Approximately 74% of the beds being delivered for fall 2015 were leased as of last month, compared to 70% of the new construction that came on line for fall '14.

There are a couple of apples-and-oranges elements in making a comparison between the two preleasing rates. For the new construction preleasing is occurring at different universities this year. For another, the number of new units scheduled for the 2015 fall semester is smaller.

Axiometrics has identified 49,977 privately owned, purpose-built, off-campus beds to be delivered by this August; this represents a 20.9% decrease from the record 63,198 that came to market last fall. The decrease in construction this year was to be expected, as developers and owners wait for the recently built properties to be absorbed.

When this year's complement of new product is delivered, it will bring the total number of beds delivered since 2012 to 216,645. That's just 7,000 fewer than the combined total from 1980 to 2006, Axiometrics says.

Even if the total for new construction is off this year compared to last, Axiometrics says the boom in new POSH product shows no sign of abating. Already, approximately 41,126 more beds are forecast to come to market for the fall of 2016. As the 2016-2017 academic year draws nearer, that number could increase.

Private developers will be opening 2,428 beds near Louisiana State University, the highest number of any US university. That represents a 37.2% increase in the amount of POSH offered at LSU's Baton Rouge campus.

The University of North Carolina—Charlotte will have 1,985 new POSH beds this fall, although more than 1,300 of them are arriving a year after their originally scheduled '14 delivery dates. Arizona State University, with 1,560 new beds; Texas State University, with 1,464; and the University of Minnesota, with 1,442, round out the top five for new deliveries.

Axiometrics notes that leasing agents are working hard to fill the new beds along with those in existing properties. The average effective rent at POSH properties in May was $590, representing an annual effective-rent-growth rate of 1.9%.

With leasing, development and investment sales activity all remaining brisk, stakeholders in the sector won't want to miss this year's RealShare Student Housing conference. Scheduled for Sept. 1 and 2 at the Ritz Carlton in Dallas, the conference will offer expert insights on development, operation and doing deals in the student housing arena. Click here for a preview of the conference agenda.