Why Smart Money Is Picky About College Housing Investments

Students are heading back to school, and they're renting apartments faster than they did a year ago. For investors, that's creating fresh opportunities — but one major player warns that not all college towns are created equal.

The big picture: student housing is splitting into winners and losers. Some universities have packed housing and not enough new buildings, while others have too many empty units and shrinking demand.

Here are the key numbers from Yardi Matrix (a real estate data firm) tracking the top 200 student housing markets:

• Pre-leasing (students signing rental contracts before move-in) hit 89.1% in July, up from 88.1% a year earlier
• 117 of 200 markets were doing better than the year before
• New construction is piling up in big markets, which drags down the national average

One of the biggest investors in this space is Harrison Street Asset Management. Since 2005, it has:

• Invested more than $24 billion
• Owned 432 student housing properties
• Managed over 238,000 beds across 200 university towns in North America and Europe

"Our conviction in student housing is really high, but our conviction in every student housing market is not," said Mike Gordon, the firm's global chief investment officer (the person who decides where the company puts its money).

Gordon explained that the top universities — like Michigan, UVA, UNC, and other big "Power Four" schools (the four major college athletic conferences) — attract strong enrollment, research funding, and students who value good job outcomes. Many of these markets run at 95% occupancy or higher, meaning almost every bed is filled. Meanwhile, housing hasn't kept up with growth at schools like Virginia Tech, Auburn, and Penn State.

Gordon compared great college towns to "factory towns where the factory never closes" — the university is the factory, and it constantly attracts students, professors, and businesses who all need somewhere to live.

Harrison Street isn't just buying — it's also selling in hot markets. Earlier this year it sold a 12-property portfolio for $910 million, one of the largest such sales in recent years.

The takeaway: In student housing, picking the right location matters more than ever.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/01/university-student-housing-investor.html