Student Housing Pre-Leasing Makes Fastest Start on Record

Advance leasing for the 2024-2025 academic year has gotten off to the fastest start on record, according to the latest Yardi Matrix student housing report. Pre-leasing reached 25.2% for the Yardi 200 roster of major universities in October, well ahead of the previous record of 10.4% set in October 2022.

As for this year, final occupancy for the Yardi 200 markets for the fall 2023 semester settled at 94.6%, compared to 96.2% the year prior. Lower occupancy this year can be partly attributed to new properties that delivered late or struggled with pre-leasing. Properties that were completed in 2023 only reached 81.7% occupancy for fall 2023.

In October, average asking rent per bed was $854 among the Yardi 200 markets for the 2024-2025 school year, up 6.6% over October 2022. “Some of the schools with the fastest pre-leasing are already seeing rents up 15-25% year-over-year, as operators take advantage of the surge in demand,” according to the report.

Pictured: Ohio University’s main campus, which led the Yardi 200 for year-over-year growth in pre-leasing.