A sure sign that the student housing market remains strong? A new study shows that the number of college students preleasing space at student housing across the nation continues to rise.
According to the most recent numbers from Yardi Matrix, as of December 2024, preleasing across the Yardi® 200 schools — the major U.S. colleges and universities that Yardi Matrix tracks — reached 47.1%. That’s an increase from the preleasing volume of 39.7% as of the same month in December of 2023.
That’s good news for the student housing sector. But the Yardi Matrix report does point to some less positive signs in the market.
For instance, the pace of rent growth on a year-over-year basis was well behind the last two years’ pace, according to the latest Yardi Matrix National Student Housing Report.
According to Yardi Matrix’s numbers, 55 schools had preleased 50% of their student housing as of December, with 14 hitting the 75% mark. By contrast, 42 schools were less than 25% preleased in December.
The average advertised rent per bedroom climbed to $909 a month in December. If that sounds high, it’s because it is: This ranks as the highest average student housing rent ever recorded.
That being said, monthly rents are not growing as quickly as they once were. According to Yardi Matrix, Rents inched up 1.5 percent in the first three months of the leasing season, following 4..6% growth during the previous year. The top 10 markets for rent growth averaged a preleasing rate of 56.3%, while the 10 markets with the largest declines average 32.8% preleased that month.
Rent growth for the Yardi 200 stood at 3.8% on a year-over-year basis in December and has averaged 4.3% since October, something that Yardi Matrix attributes to operators being more conservative pushing rents.
Rent growth in markets with four or more properties has ranged from -17.7% at UC Berkeley, which has been inundated with new supply, to 14.4% at Auburn University.
The new supply of dedicated student housing properties has been dropping. Last year, the number of new beds totaled 35,703. In 2023 developers brought a higher total of 44,746 beds online.
During the fourth quarter of last year, 28 student housing properties changed hands, bringing 2024’s total number of transactions to 129, exceeding by 50 the total deal volume recorded in 2023. That number is also above the pre-pandemic averages of 2021 and 2022.
Yardi Matrix reported that the sales prices of student housing properties also surged in 2024, reaching more than $101,000 a bedroom.
