Estate Living Magazine Smart Moves - Issue 38 February 2019 | Page 18

P R O P E R T Y
&
I N V E S T M E N T
THE STATE OF
STUDENT
HOUSING
As the new academic year begins, what are the key trends – both locally and abroad – in the student housing space?
APARTMENTS ARE BECOMING MORE EXPENSIVE
South Africa has a student housing crisis, and before we even consider sexy
global trends like communal lounges and fibre connectivity, we have to address
the elephant in the room. It’s impossible to get a precise figure, but the national
student housing deficit sits somewhere between 200,000 (a figure put forward by
the Department of Higher Education in 2016) and 750,000. That’s as many as three-
quarters of a million students who’ll register for tertiary studies in 2019, but won’t
have accommodation for the year. It’s not so much a case of the elephant in the
room, then, as it is the elephant sleeping on a mate’s couch. As demand skyrockets,
the costs for student housing will – as the first-year Economics class will surely tell
you – naturally also increase.
STUDENT DIGS ARE GETTING AN UPGRADE
While student housing used to have a reputation of Spartan dorm rooms and bunk
beds, varsity housing is becoming significantly more comfortable and more high-
tech. Globally, this trend is driven in part by the perceived rising costs of student fees
(students – or their parents – are paying more, so they expect to get more), and in