Conference Coverage

Student Housing Business magazine and StudentHousingBusiness.com are pleased to announce that the entry portal for the 11th annual Innovator Awards is now open! Student Housing Business’ prestigious Innovator Awards celebrate excellence in both off- and on-campus housing and draw a robust number entries and interest. Innovator Award winners will be announced during a special event at the annual InterFace Student Housing conference on Wednesday night, July 14th, at the JW Marriott in Austin. Innovator Awards winners will also be profiled in a special section of the September/October issue of Student …

Author John C. Maxwell coined the phrase “Teamwork makes the dream work,” and student housing operators are experiencing that truism firsthand as they deal with the nightmare scenario of the pandemic and its ripple effects. Closed campuses, virtual learning, COVID-19 outbreak concerns and an uncertain leasing season next spring are all challenges that property managers are tackling in real time. Ironically, industry professionals say that the pandemic may actually be a net positive in the long run as it has forged colleagues closer to one another. Demi Sterling-Kinney, vice president …

Student housing developers say now is a favorable time to aggressively pursue new projects as their customers voice a strong desire to resume on-campus learning, and they are using lessons learned over the past six months to bring debt and equity partners to the table in order to jump-start deals. Whereas demand drivers for new development in the traditional multifamily space typically center on job and population growth, the student housing sector often responds to different economic and social factors. In the COVID-19 era, these fundamentals are manifesting themselves in …

The student housing industry has long been lauded for its recession resilience as an asset class. The challenges presented by COVID-19 have been adeptly met by the industry, which quickly formed a collaborative and flexible frontline with the ultimate goal of allowing students to safely continue to pursue their education. As the months have passed, it has been proven that student housing is not just recession resilient – it is pandemic resilient, as well. Bill Bayless, CEO of American Campus Communities, kicked off the NMHC/InterFace Student Housing Conference on Monday, …