Over-crowded students shack up in hotels
No room in the inn(stitution) Photo: David J Thomas
Demand for space at universities is on the up. While the UK is one of the most popular destinations for international students, though, America is also feeling the strain.
The University at Buffalo traditionally has had largely a commuter campus, explains Buffalo News, drawing the majority of its students from Western New York. With more students wanting to stay on campus, though, space is running out: even after adding 650 beds to the campus in the last six years, it is still not enough to house the students.
Some are tripling up in double rooms and some are catching a shuttle in every day from a nearby college. Others, though, at Daemen College have had to shack up in a hotel.
"It’s a really nice hotel and they try to be very accommodating to our students," Greg Nayor, vice president for student affairs and dean of students at Daemen, told the local paper.
College President Katherine Conway-Turner said she doesn’t expect demand will dwindle any time soon.
"It’s not just having more new students," she said. "It’s having more upper-class students who want to stay on campus."
The supply problem, though, is not just one facing Buffalo, USA. It is a trend being recorded worldwide: the growing global student population has driven up demand - and rental rates - at institutions in multiple cities and several countries.
New wealth has fuelled the numbers of Asian students seeking an English-language education worldwide and there’s pressure for limited quality accommodation in many cities, notes Savills. Indeed, the real estate adviser has just declared student housing an "exciting new global asset class", thanks to its strong worldwide returns.
Internationally mobile students from China grew by 89 per cent between 2007 and 2011 alone, and are the biggest foreign student group in the US, UK, Germany, Japan and Australia. After China, India has the largest number, with 196,000 mobile students, who are particularly prevalent in the US and UK.
Turkey has benefited by opening up its student market, doubling the number of international students it hosts between 2005 and 2012. The country benefits from the Erasmus scheme which brings EU students to its universities.
"In mature markets, student housing looks distinctly counter-cyclical; one of the best performing sectors during the global financial crisis," adds Savills.
The business of providing purpose-built, professionally rented student accommodation is established in the US and is maturing in the UK, but other countries are earlier on the investment curve. Australia benefits from English language and proximity to fast growing Asian markets. So student housing has expanded rapidly in the past decade, but supply and vacancy rates are low, forcing rents up. Germany, France and the Netherlands are at an early stage of development with very limited quantities of student housing provision.
"We foresee the major emerging student housing markets of the Netherlands, France and Germany combined could eventually be worth an additional $0.75 billion per annum over the next 20 years," forecasts Savills.