Student Housing Pre-Leasing at All-Time High
Rents were also up, by 6.7%, slightly less than a year ago at this time.
The national student housing sector recorded its best pre-leasing season ever as of January, according to RealPage Analytics.
Among the core 175 universities RealPage tracks, 49% of beds have been leased for the Fall 2024 academic year. Furthermore, those beds were leased at rents 6.7% higher than the year before.
Those figures edge last year’s pre-lease reading of 48.2% – an all-time high then.
Beds within one mile of campus notched strong performances, with those within a half-mile at 49.5% and those from a half-mile to a mile at 48.7%.
Best-performing universities included the University of Tennessee, Purdue University, the University of Arkansas, and Virginia Tech – all posting pre-lease rates of 80% or higher as of January.
“Unsurprisingly, several of those schools also recorded very strong final occupancy rates for the Fall 2023 academic year,” according to the report.
RealPage found that properties more than a mil 8.e from campus saw the biggest boost in rents, coming in at 8.7% compared to the 6.1% boost for those within a half mile.
Those price hikes registered well above pre-COVID norms of more like 2% annual effective rent growth but fell short of the 9+% rent gains recorded at some points in the Fall 2023 pre-lease season.