Despite a widely reported drop in college enrollment over the last two years, the student housing industry continues to perform well and is back on track with healthy rent growth and preleasing for Fall 2022. Those were a few of the topline conclusions of a webinar focused on student housing, presented April 13 by Yardi Matrix vice president Jeff Adler. Miss the session? You can view the recording and presentation materials. Overall, up to one million students who were expected to attend college in the U.S. are now missing from enrollment rolls. That’s a significant reduction that will have myriad impacts, from college finances to housing to career prospects. “If you look at the straight from high school to college enrollment, we thought we would see a gap year (in 2020-2021), but it turns out the gap year was an off-ramp,” said Adler. That off-ramp has been detrimental to lower-tier four-year colleges and community colleges. But within the Yardi 200, comprised of the top 200 investment grade universities across all major collegiate conferences, enrollment is up and is expected to continue to be up at a modest rate over the next several years. That’s due to consolidation of enrollment, Adler explained. “If there are fewer (students) available, and you want to get into a school that has a higher reputation, then the name brand schools are the ones that are the winners,” he said. That largely includes the 42 private and 158 public schools that comprise the Yardi 200. As of March, preleasing for next fall was recorded at 63.7 percent across Yardi 200 schools. That’s 13.5 percent higher than the same time last year and 9.9 percent higher than March 2019, before the pandemic. The average rent per bedroom is $777 for Fall...
Reach for New Renters
RentCafe Reach now for student housing
With spring’s college graduations and early summer’s high school graduations behind us, a whole new generation of renters is coming online. These young renters are bringing new life into the rental market, along with their mobile devices and digital expectations. Born in 1995 and after, the first wave of Gen Z are now in their 20s and chances are, they will be searching for rentals with their smartphones. Are you doing everything you can to attract these tech-dependent prospects to your properties? Trends show that Gen Z doesn’t really respond to traditional advertising, but does read reviews and makes decisions based on them. They spend more time on Instagram than Facebook. They are likely to prefer online chat or texting for communication, and expect to pay for things online. That means rent, too. Here’s some great news: the advanced marketing services of RentCafe Reach are now available to our Yardi Voyager Student Housing clients. Now it’s easier than ever to reach more renters who are searching online for a place to live. What is RENTCafé Reach? Managing your student housing marketing, leasing and resident services from one platform that includes dynamic property websites and smart multichannel marketing tools gives you the greatest competitive advantage. With RentCafe Reach, you can take your targeted efforts even further for the best possible results. How renters find vacancies when searching online (the most popular way) often takes multiple paths. RentCafe Reach is comprised of three distinct services—search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM) and promoted internet listings—working together to make sure your communities are positioned to attract more prospects, no matter how renters choose to search. RENTCafé Reach has a team of property marketing experts who are available to help you with search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC) and enhanced online listings. As a certified Google Partner, we’re ready to optimize your search and lead generation efforts. Because RentCafe Reach integrates with RentCafe and Voyager, you get accurate reporting and complete transparency into your data. SEO & PPC Services The RENTCafé Reach digital marketing team is comprised of Google certified experts in both Google AdWords for paid traffic and Google Analytics for organic traffic. This allows us to use Google as a resource to answer questions and identify future opportunities. Our SEO services include: Optimized on-page content, page titles and meta descriptions Off-page optimization, including business citation and brand management Location data management through our partnership with Yext Regular website health audits and maintenance Monthly reporting, service calls and a dedicated account manager Comprehensive reporting to track results Our PPC services include: Strategic PPC advertising tailored to your goals Campaign management by Google AdWords Certified Specialists Ad targeting based on demographics, location, timing and mobility Ad extensions and landing pages to increase conversions Retargeting campaigns that follow engaged prospects Plus, white hat strategies help our clients improve website performance while actively protecting them against black hat techniques that get flagged by search engines. Get Ready for Gen Z Learn more about end-to-end student housing property management using our single connected solution. From social media marketing and online screening and leasing to text rent payments, you can attract, serve and retain quality new renters who improve your bottom...
