Student Housing’s Football Advantage Spreads Beyond the Power 5

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Investors in the market for student housing properties would do well to study the college football scores: research from CBRE has found that student housing properties serving universities with elite football programs command higher prices and lower cap rates compared with student housing associated with other universities. Furthermore, that advantage is spreading beyond the Power 5 schools this year.

Cap rates for student housing assets at elite football universities are considerably lower than student housing at other universities, CBRE says, with the pricing differential 40+ basis points in the first half of 2019. Namely, at NCAA’s Division I Power 5 universities (representing the top five football conferences: Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern), student housing acquisitions in the first half of the year had an average 5.40% cap rate (or 43 basis points below non-Division I schools) and captured a disproportionate share of the total investment volume for the first half of the year—which was nearly half of all transactions.