Online Platforms | The future of student accommodation

Online platforms offer the best way of following the evolution of students’ needs when it comes to both accommodation and the student journey in general.

From the more mature markets like the UK, to younger Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) markets in continental Europe, the same trend follows - student accommodation construction projects keep expanding in Europe. Real estate developers are more and more attracted by this property type, especially as it responds to a growing demand from students. In parallel to this, mobility trends amongst young people are driving this need even more. In France, according to the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, there are more than 300 000 foreign students looking for accommodation every year.

Driven by this phenomenon, Student.com became a key player in the industry in 2011 and other online platforms in this sector were born from a similar mission - to improve the student journey. Not only did existing student accommodation not fill the growing demand, they were becoming scarce and difficult to find. The problem affected local students but even more foreign ones who often had to face a language barrier as well as scepticism with local landlords (not knowing the local market).

Today, the role of student housing platforms has evolved. The increase in the number of available offers and the desire to attract more and more foreign customers creates a dynamic of competition that forces market players to carefully study the needs of students so that the offer always adapts to their needs. Our privileged contact with students and our large online offering - over a million beds in more than 400 cities on Student.com - allows us today to identify general trends around the expectations of student housing, which are useful for investors to understand what the future holds.

In addition to expectations when it comes to security and price, trends show that the new generation of students place particular importance on their ‘‘lifestyle’ when they look at their living space. Students today choose a way of life - a community that they want to be a part of. This is particularly the reason behind the increase in requests for residences with common areas (study rooms, TV rooms, ...) or the trend of flat sharing. In both cases, it is the notion of community that students seek.

Another trend is unsurprisingly the one for more flexible rentals, available for periods of 3 to 6 months. In France, this is already the reality thanks to the Mobility Lease of the Elan law, and on Student.com we are happy to already offer more flexible rentals with our partner Studapart.

Beyond the aforementioned trends, we are also able to gain insight into local-specific trends. At Student.com, for example, we see that Chinese students place a special importance on their safety. CCTV, secured gates, restricted areas and guards (especially at night) are key factors for them to take into consideration when choosing their housing. Students from Spain (and their parents) will be inclined to find catered properties, with a canteen where they can get their meals everyday and not have to worry about cooking.

This capacity of online platforms to detect these signals and trends very early on, makes our collaborations with real estate developers and landlords all the more valuable. From this point of view, I think that the student housing platforms play a significant role in defining the future of student housing.

But it doesn’t stop there - in my opinion, online platforms will also have an instrumental role to play in helping on the one hand, the landlords in mature markets such as France to diversify their offerings and reach new audiences, and on the other hand, landlords in developing markets who will thus gain access to the global arena. Essentially, online platforms will facilitate and amplify strategic partnerships and collaborations, and in this way play a crucial role in the growth of this market segment.

By Luke Nolan