1.1 Definition and Presentation

Student housing includes any official residency or accommodation a University provides to students.

These specific residencies generally consist of a building or a group of buildings which are entirely inhabited by students.

There are usually two layouts the structures can have:

Similar to apartments: multiple shared rooms, common areas, shared kitchen and bathroom.
Similar to hotel rooms: single rooms without kitchen, single or shared bathroom.

A common aspect to both structures is the presence of shared facilities which can be accessed by all students living there. Generally, those consist of both places for pleasure and for work/study.

Student housing is a subsegment of the real estate market and represents an attractive investment. Indeed, investment volumes in the sector have grown considerably in recent years, increasing by 135% between 2014 and 2019 [Savills]. The market is expected to benefit from growing internationalization, changing students’ expectations and living habits. Indeed, in the past few years students have been moving around the world more than ever, so much so that in 2017 over 5 million students studied abroad.

In Italy the number of students has historically been relatively stable. However, for what concerns student housing in this country, the industry mostly targets higher education students whose number increased by almost 5% in the past 5 years [Savills].

The COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy has had the side effect of emptying, from North to South, the rooms generally rented to students and off-site workers. Domestically, room availability compared to 2019 has in fact more than doubled (+149%).

1.2 A Global Profitable Market

Over the past six years there has been an explosion of institutional investment into student accommodation around the world on the premise that demand for housing is robust.

In **** global student housing transactions reached a value of **.* billion dollars. The considerable growth has been fueled by the progressive relevance student housing ...

1.3 The Italian Market for Student Residencies

Size

There is lack of information on value and market size of student housing in Italy. With the available data it is though possible to give an estimate of the current potential of the industry.

Starting from the number of national students in Italy (***) of *.** million, the market could grasp **% of ...

1.4 COVID-19 Impact

The COVID-** Pandemic has brought about devastating consequences for higher education in Italy. Indeed, many Universities have been forced to keep their campuses closed for months to avoid the spread of the virus contagion among their students. Consequently, given the fact that almost all lessons were provided online and in streaming, ...

2.1 Demand Overview and Main Drivers

Student residencies value and volume is expected to benefit from the increasing number of students studying abroad, higher prices for alternative accommodations and changing lifestyle and habits of the current generation. ***,*** is the estimated number of students “fuori sede” (***) which could potentially choose a student accommodation as a housing accommodation. Nevertheless, ...

2.2 Italy's Attractiveness as an Educational Country

Once established that the number of students’ inflow in Italy is directly correlated with student housing demand and potentiality, it is relevant to understand the reasons behind the students’ mobility.

The country attractiveness in terms of education can be therefore measured according to:

English Taught Programs University ranking vs teaching quality Cost ...

3.1 Organization and Dynamics of the Market

An overview on student living arrangements

The market for student accommodations does not have the same size as the number of Italian students. The most influencing factor in this sense is the percentage of Italian students living at home (***) which leaves smaller room for maneuver on the remaining *%. The largest majority ...

4.1 Housing structure

Student residencies in Italy can be distinguished in three types:

Hotel structure : layout based on corridors with rooms extending horizontally one in front of another. Mini accommodation : layout based on organizations composed by small apartments with multiple rooms and shared spaces. Mixed structure : layout based not on a particular structure. [***]

Some ...

4.2 An Extremely Low Available Offer

Scenari Immobiliari estimated the number of beds available in Italy around **,***, the offer is far behind the potential demand in Italy and the European average. Indeed, the ratio between the totality of students and the available beds is among the lowest in Europe, with a coverage of exclusively *% [***].

Average number of ...

4.3 Swinging prices among student residencies

The table above identifies an average minimum and maximum price range for a single or a double room in three different student housing facilities. Segmenting the accommodation types based on managing authority, one can observe the pricing gap among the privately held and regional managed. The distinction between university campus and ...

4.4 Offering propositions

Biggest student residencies

Camplus is among the largest student housing facilities, present in some of the most popular Italian cities, and soon on the Spanish territory with the opening in Pamplona. In Italy, it currently counts circa *,*** available beds, number that is projected to go as high as **,*** with the perspective ...

4.5 Incoming projects on the Italian territory

The starting point is a statement mentioned multiple times through this report: demand is higher than offer. From a simple concept, the basis for large investments has been created. Indeed, according to a **** survey on investment intentions **% of respondents stated that student housing is the residential real estate segment with greater ...