Yardi Matrix’s October 2025 report on the student housing market in the U.S. presents a mixed but largely positive picture.
Strong preleasing helped push occupancy to 95.1%, the highest level in three years. Rents held steady in September and grew 0.8% year-over-year, but this was the slowest annual increase since 2017.
Transactions totaling $3.7 billion were concluded, but this was down from $5 billion in September 2024, and the number of properties traded plummeted from 96 to 76. Due to a shortage of institutional portfolio sales, average prices fell to $98,000 per bed, compared to $107,000 in 2024.
“Even so, pricing remains well above pre-2024 averages, underscoring the sector’s continued strength and investor confidence,” the report stated.
The increase in preleasing was fueled by a strong improvement in several small university markets that underperformed in 2024. In 49 markets, schools achieved 99% occupancy or higher, including large universities like Oklahoma and Virginia Tech and others in the Midwest. But 32 colleges fell below 90% occupancy – still fewer than the 50 in this position in 2024.
Nine schools achieved 100% occupancy for the second consecutive year, while a majority of colleges (112) saw occupancy rise. There were also some “dramatic turnarounds” where average occupancy rose from 83.8% in 2024 to 94.9% in 2025.
Some 27,000 new student housing beds were delivered nationally in 2025, a steep drop from the 35,000 delivered in 2024. Some 38,500 beds are under construction, 26,500 due in 2026. The most new deliveries this year are headed for Tennessee, Minnesota, Florida State, Michigan and the University of Texas- Austin.
The 10 schools with the highest year-over-year growth in percentage preleased were led by the University of Memphis (30.5% preleasing growth). Others included the University of Cincinnati (26.5%), the University of Pennsylvania (14.8%), the University of Notre Dame (14.2%), Louisiana Tech (13.9%), Washington State (12%), Alabama-Birmingham (11.8%), Miami University-Oxford (11.8%), Wichita State (9.4%) and Syracuse University (9.1%).
In contrast to the higher rates of occupancy, rent growth slipped in 11 of the 12 months of the 2024-2025 year., diving from 4.5% in October to 0.8% in September – “the slowest annual increase since Yardi Matrix began tracking the sector in 2017.” Heightened competition during preleasing drove a 1.6% decline in rents from a high of $920 per bed in March 2025 to an average $912 for 2024-2025 with 2.5% annual growth – half its previous level.
Yardi Matrix found the slowdown was widespread. However, a number of markets bucked the trend with stronger leasing season rent gains than in 2024. Schools in this category included the University of Missouri, Nebraska, Louisville and Oklahoma State. Other formerly top-performing markets, however, saw sharp falls in rent growth. Their number included longer, more established student markets like Tennessee, Arizona State, Ohio State, and Clemson, while Clemson’s growth rate moderated and North Texas remained flat.
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