Proximity to Campus Impacts Student Housing Occupancy

Purpose-built student housing properties once again posted solid occupancy as 2018’s fall semester progressed. Occupancy in the core 175 student-housing markets tracked in the Axiometrics database came in at 93.3% as of October. That’s virtually identical to the occupancy results from a year earlier, despite the addition more than 42,000 beds of new supply. Convenience to campus appeared to play a bigger role in performance during 2018 than it did in 2017. Among properties located less than a half mile from school, occupancy bumped up to 95.2%, a little better than the 94.7% rate from 2017. Occupancy of 92.1% for developments located between a half mile and one mile from campus was in line with the performance achieved in 2017. The bad news was that properties more than a mile from school really underperformed. Occupancy in those projects was limited to 89.6%, 180 basis points under the 2017 occupancy rate for the more distant developments. Those projects more than a mile from campus appropriately comprise a small share of the total stock.