Higher interest rates are even slowing the investment sales of student housing properties, according to the latest research from Yardi Matrix.
Yardi Matrix, in its August national student housing report, said that the number of student-housing beds sold in the first half of 2023 was down 73.1% when compared to the same six months of 2022.
At the same time, the price for student-housing beds sold fell 10% in the first half of 2023 when compared to the same period last year.
Interest rates, though, haven’t been able to slow demand for student housing across the country. Yardi Matrix reported that as of July, 90.9% of the beds at the 200 universities that the company tracks were preleased for the upcoming fall term. That is an increase of 4.6% from June of this year and about even with last year.
Yardi Matrix predicts that fall occupancy rates at these 200 colleges is expected to hit 96%. Rent growth at student housing properties remains sold at 7.1% on a year-over-year basis.
A total of 21 universities in the Yardi 200 were 100% preleased for the 2023-2024 school year, incuding seven schools with four or more dedicated student housing paroperties. This includes large-market universities such as the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and the University of Central Florida.
Another 45 universities were more than 95% preleased, 34 with four or more student housing properties.
Some Midwest-based universities ranked among Yardi Matrix’s top 20 colleges with the greatest year-over-year growth in the percentage of their student housing beds preleased. That includes Ohio University’s main campus, which led this list with a 24.9% increase in preleased beds. Also ranking high were the University of Kentucky, with an increase of 9.2%; University of Louisville, 8.2%; and Kansas State University, 6.6%.
