The student residence market in Italy

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%).