New Student Housing Deliveries Dropping, But Occupancy Is Up
The number of new student housing beds expected for fall 2015 delivery is fewer than the beds delivered for the 2014-15 academic year, but that isn't necessarily a sign that growth in the student housing sector is slowing, says Axiometrics student housing analyst Taylor Gunn (right, with colleague Joel Fletcher at NAA Student Housing Conference & Exposition in Vegas a few weeks ago). That’s because occupancy is increasing and pre-leasing for 2015-16 is solid, she says.
About 48,000 new beds are slated for an August delivery; that’s about 23% less than the almost 63,000 completed this past fall at the peak of new student housing construction, Taylor tells us. But even with that decrease, the expected 2015 deliveries are in line with the totals from 2008 and 2012. Taylor tells us about 73 universities will get new supply this fall. Of those, only 15 are delivering more than 900 beds. Getting the most new beds are LSU (with almost 2,500 beds) followed by ASU (with about 1,500), Minnesota, Louisville and OU, among others. Fall 2015 deliveries are already 44% pre-leased and filling up at a stronger rate since 1995, Taylor tells us. The national average effective rent for this fall's new beds is $779 (about $173 more than the overall national average of $606.)
