Students and Active Adults Clamor for Housing
While housing shortages continue in both conventional apartments as well as student housing throughout Northern California, Greystar is focused on providing new housing in the right locations.
SAN FRANCISCO—While housing shortages continue in both conventional apartments as well as student housing throughout Northern California, Greystar is focused on providing new housing in the right locations. With growing student populations in particular, the firm acknowledges there will be an increasing need for university-centric housing across the entire Pacific Northwest.
“As we enter 2019, there are headwinds to new development with significantly higher costs and increasing interest rates,” Ali Warner, managing director of development at Greystar, Northern California and Pacific Northwest, tells GlobeSt.com. “But student housing is a natural extension of our existing business and provides another avenue to provide much-needed housing.”
Properties priced between $600 and $800 per bed experienced solid results this year, according to a recent report by RealPage. Rent growth for these properties landed at 1.8%, above the national average, with an occupancy rate of 94.8%, only 41 basis points below last year–an indication that higher prices are not necessarily impacting absorption.
Meanwhile, 41,700 off-campus beds have been delivered, with an additional 2,500 set to complete by year-end. This is slightly below the total beds delivered last fall because of delays, but it’s still in line with the 5% to 7% inventory growth recorded nationally during the past few years, says the RealPage report.
Acknowledging the student/Millennial preference for bigger and better amenities, Warner points to Greystar’s selection process for tech and amenity partners as a means of attracting more students to its housing.
“Continuing to innovate and to explore new technologies and services is a big focus for our team,” Warner tells GlobeSt.com. “There are a lot of new ideas out there and we are constantly exploring new innovation. The key is to focus on those technologies and services that stand the test of time by providing the flexibility to adapt to changing resident preferences. We are committed to working on creating the next generation of living experience by both improving the built environment and the level of service. Expect some really cool new ideas in our next generation developments.”
This effort will require staffing up, which is what Greystar is doing. In an effort to expand its development operations throughout Northern California for not only student housing product but the active adult niche, Mike McCone has been hired as senior director of development.
McCone will oversee the development of both conventional student housing and active adult housing in San Francisco and the East Bay. He brings more than 12 years of experience as an architect and 20 years in real estate development, during which time he delivered more than 1,500 residential units across seven San Francisco in-fill residential developments with more than 120,000 square feet of retail space.
“Mike’s unique background in both development and architecture make him a strong addition to Greystar’s San Francisco team and highlights our commitment to growth,” said Warner. “As there continue to be housing shortages in Northern California, Mike will be instrumental in expanding our footprint throughout key Bay Area marketplaces such as San Francisco and the East Bay across multiple product types.”