The 2024–2025 leasing season is starting to look more like last year, according to the March 2024 Matrix Student Housing National Report. However, preleasing is still increasing at a historically fast pace, surpassing 61% in February 2024. This marks a 4.5% increase year-over-year (YOY) and is well ahead of the five-year average of 48% in February.
The Yardi Matrix report provides insights from 178 schools with preleasing data. Today’s numbers show that preleasing trends are more than 10% ahead of the average from 2019–2022.
Student Housing Market Preleasing Trends
In February, 42 schools were more than 70% preleased, compared to only 29 at the same time last year. Just 35 schools were less than 40% preleased last month, compared to 47 in February 2023.
A few markets that failed to reach 90% occupancy last year—including the University of Southern California, Illinois State, Johns Hopkins, and Mississippi State—are now more than 10% ahead on preleasing this year.
Increasing from last month is the number of markets that are more than 10% behind last year’s pace. These twenty markets include Tennessee-Knoxville, ASU, and CU-Boulder.
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A dozen universities have surpassed a 15% YOY growth in prelease percentage. Topping the list is the University of Mississippi (32.8% growth in percentage preleased), followed by the University of Missouri (22.4%), Central Michigan (20.7%), and Bowling Green State (20.2%).
Rent Growth and Bed Construction
As rent growth and demand has stayed solid, “student housing is outperforming nearly every asset class,” according to the report. Up 5.2% YOY is the average rent per bed, sitting at $883 in February 2024. This is the 33rd month in a row that rent has increased month-over-month.
Thirty-two schools posted double-digit rent growth in February while 26 markets have a rent decline. The Matrix report finds that many of the markets reporting double-digit rent growth are the same ones with a majority of beds preleased for the 2024–2025 school year.
Schools with less beds preleased such as UC-Berkeley, Washington State, and Nevada-Reno have also faced enrollment and/or supply issues. These markets averaged 43% preleased in February—20 points below the national average.
Bed Construction
Yardi Matrix’s supply forecast projects 46,285 new beds will be delivered this year. This is a sharp increase from the 35,610 delivered in 2023. Universities with the most beds under construction include:
- University of Tennessee: 3,961 beds under construction; 8,220 completed. Preleased at 88% with rent per bed at $1,136
- University of Texas: 3,460 beds under construction; 21,038 completed. Preleased at 71% with rent per bed at $1,161
- Florida State University: 3,167 beds under construction; 26,859 completed. Preleased at 69% with rent per bed at $840
- University of Minnesota: 2,709 beds under construction; 12,722 completed. Preleased at 53% with rent per bed at $1,024
- University of Georgia: 2,445 beds under construction; 12,903 completed. Preleased at 71% with rent per bed at $877
