SA Affordable Housing May - June 2020 // ISSUE: 82 | Page 20

PROFILE
SA’s ‘Musk of affordable
student accommodation’
By Eamonn Ryan
John Schooling, a director of student accommodation group STAG
African, was destined to be a school teacher but left schooling for
construction. Today, he is intent on driving down the real cost per bed
for student accommodation. This is a work-in-progress, encompassing
building specification and design, innovative financing and alternative
building materials..
ALL PHOTOS BY STAG AFRICAN
John Schooling, Director of student accommodation group
STAG African.
Government last year acknowledged that an additional
300 000 beds are required to accommodate the
nation’s poorer students. The student housing crisis is
a result of a growth in demand for higher education in recent
years. The lack of accommodation has been directly linked to
higher failure and dropout rates for first year students.
Student accommodation is consequently a significant
component of the affordable housing market – and an
important one as much of the future of this country’s
economy depends on skills development. Schooling’s recent
career has been focused on this critical vocation.
He began his studies in 1976 at the University of
Stellenbosch, graduating with an MPhED in Sports Science.
Schooling started off his career as what he describes as
“the most over-qualified Phys-Ed teacher in the world” at
Camps Bay High School in 1982, where he worked for four
years before transitioning to a ‘bakkie builder’. He says he
thoroughly enjoyed that lifestyle – seeing a physical result to
his labours - but another transition was in store for him and
his partner as he wished to shift from reactive tendering for
jobs, where much of what happens to a builder is by accident
rather than intent, to being the developer and creating their
own work flow.
In the late 1980s, having seen a gap in the development
of commercial property, residential and private estates, he
established STAG Properties. In the 2008 property crisis,
when many developers were crashing, STAG identified an
opportunity to develop, build, operate and finance student
residences. This happened by chance, says Schooling, simply
because they were stuck with land near the Cape Peninsula
University of Technology (CPUT) and STAG approached the
university concerning their need for student accommodation
- though he attributes this seminal decision to their being
“open to new ideas”. The positive response prompted
the company to research the national requirement for
accommodation (about 200 000 beds) and they saw the
opportunity. Since then, STAG has been committed to the
provision of world-class student accommodation.
18 MAY - JUNE 2020 SAAffordHousing saaffordablehousingmag SA Affordable Housing www.saaffordablehousing.co.za