In today’s student housing market, reliable high-speed internet isn’t just a perk—it’s an expectation. With students consuming more data than ever for streaming, working, gaming and online learning, property owners and operators must ensure their networks can handle increasing demand. But upgrading internet infrastructure isn’t just about keeping up with resident expectations; it’s also a strategic investment. Choosing the right broadband strategy with an experienced partner can help maximize property value, improve resident satisfaction and reduce costly future upgrades. Now is an especially good time to consider these upgrades. With …
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In the recent webinar, “Resident Retention at Risk — How to Prevent Quiet Leaving,” hosted by Multifamily & Affordable Housing Business and Student Housing Business, industry leaders examined the biggest challenges impacting student housing retention and provided expert strategies for addressing them. The discussion covered critical topics such as the impact of communication strategies, property maintenance and student engagement on lease renewals. Speakers shared insights on how proactive management, feedback collection and strategic initiatives can help reduce turnover and foster a stronger sense of community among residents. The webinar also …
The Dec. 17 webinar “Student Housing in the Age of AI,” sponsored by EliseAI, examined challenging questions about the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the industry when it comes to operations, leasing, marketing, centralization efforts and more. Chief among those questions: how can student housing professionals best leverage AI to streamline processes and track return on investment (ROI)? Listen in to hear from leading owners and operators who are integrating new technologies for needs as diverse as decreasing operating costs, answering questions from potential residents, generating leads, boosting leasing efforts, …
Tech Challenges Appear on Horizon as Internet Demand Swells
Student housing populations demand robust internet connections to stream classes, research and collaborate with study partners, and even log in to remote jobs. To unwind, they may stream movies, download entire seasons of favorite television shows or join friends in lengthy online gaming sessions. Property owners and managers may already feel they are fighting an uphill battle to satisfy residents’ voracious appetites for internet bandwidth, but greater challenges lie ahead. Driven largely by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), data volumes could soon overwhelm internet connectivity at properties that fail to …
Webinar: The State of Student Housing — Lessons from the 2024-25 Leasing Cycle
The Oct. 1 webinar “The State of Student Housing — Lessons from the 2024-25 Leasing Cycle,” hosted by Student Housing Business and sponsored by College House, provided an in-depth look at the state of the student housing leasing market, both what happened over the 2024-2025 leasing cycle and what might be coming for the 2025-2026 academic year. The expert panelists from across the student housing industry discussed the positive trends the industry has enjoyed, including rent growth and strong, stable occupancy levels. They also highlighted some challenges, such as the impact of delayed …
Gen Z is shaking up the status quo when it comes to traditional student housing marketing strategies. Known as Gen Z, Generation Z or Zoomers, this demographic group is made up of people born from the late 1990s to the early 2010s. Meanwhile, new predictive leasing technology enables better approaches for savvy owners and operators ready to shift toward more insightful, data-driven marketing attribution methods. One doesn’t need to be a marketing expert to see the vast differences between Gen Z and its predecessor cohorts in everything from consumer behavior …
Student housing is capturing the attention of developers, investors and institutional lenders as university enrollment and record rent gains position the sector to outperform other property types. That’s one of the dominant themes evident in Walker & Dunlop’s recently released 2024 Student Housing Outlook. Although transaction volume declined to $5.7 billion in 2023 from the previous year’s all-time high of $24 billion, strong operating fundamentals are attracting new entrants to the sector, including institutional investors and lenders. “Student housing is entering a resurgence where we predict continued outperformance relative to …
How to Bridge the Affordability Gap in Student Housing
As housing costs rise, colleges, universities and developers are teaming up to address a widening affordability gap at their campuses by making housing available and attainable for the population that needs it. One of the developers leading this charge is The Michaels Organization, which is applying lessons learned in its 50 years of affordable housing development to create student housing dedicated to serving students, faculty and staff who would struggle to pay market rent. Student Housing Business queried Ned Williams, executive vice president of development at The Michaels Organization, about …
The student housing industry comes with a unique set of challenges that traditional multifamily operators don’t face. From renting to a demographic that has largely enjoyed rent-free living under mom and dad’s roof, to navigating the complexities of parental guarantors and financial aid, to grappling with no-shows and skips, student housing operators must carefully manage risks that can jeopardize occupancy and rental income. Solutions like lease guarantees are rapidly gaining traction in this market, offering a win-win approach that protects operators while expanding housing access for students. For most students, …
Each year, the academic calendar requires student housing operators to compress revenue generation for the entire year into the nine or 10 months when students most need to rent their product. In that accelerated and ever-changing environment, management teams with the experience, skills and tools to respond quickly are in the best position to manage costs and drive growth. “I like to say that student housing moves in dog years — miss a day and you miss a week; miss a month and you could miss a year,” says Stacey …