Investors Pour Billions Into Off-Campus Living So Students Can Live Like Kings
I lived in the dorms for a year before moving out into a quaint one-bedroom deep in the heart of Uptown Dallas. It was nice. Had a gym, two pools, elevators, a business center, parking garage, and the entrance looked like you were entering a hotel. It wasn’t the nicest place to live, but it did me well for a few years.
Kids nowadays get to live in some pretty fucking luxurious off-campus places. Walk around Florida State, Arizona State, or the University of Arizona and you’ll find that these kids’ apartment complexes are more like spring break resorts than they are places students actually live in. This is all thanks to rising investments into off-campus living.
From Bloomberg:
Purpose-built student housing has become increasingly upscale over the past decade, driven by rising enrollments and an infusion of new capital. Investors seeking recession-resistant assets poured an estimated $4.5 billion into the properties last year, up from $3 billion the year before.
And—surprise, surprise—developers targeting college students are building private dorms that are more likely to resemble beach motels than libraries.
Bloomberg would then go on to break down what kind of amenities each place had. Some were a little more luxurious than others.
These account for just a few of the amenities, too. We’re talking about places that have valet trash service, laundry machines that text you when your shit is done, and restaurants inside the complex. The amenity that takes the cake, though? Whichever place is rocking the golf simulators. Kinda need to live there now..
[via Bloomberg]
Image via YouTube
Let the free market take over student housing and the quality of living goes way up for students.
10 years ago at 11:20 amExcept on urban campuses. Foreign landlords and century old houses with lax building codes don’t usually make for extravagant, affordable housing.
10 years ago at 12:10 pmCreighton is an urban campus and has some very nice apartment complexes. They’re expensive but worthwhile. There are also the typical shitty houses, but hey, they work well for parties.
10 years ago at 6:41 pmI agree but let’s not pretend the lack of involvement in the free market is the reason for shitty college dorms.
10 years ago at 1:04 pmHate to say it, but it’s actually the exact opposite. I cover these markets for a living, and the reason that this is “recession-proof” and that investors are “pouring money” into it is because it’s a good return on investment. Why? Not because of the free market, but because the student loans used to pay for on-campus housing are guaranteed by the government and the schools collude to raise tuition somewhat uniformly.
Thus, you have a large captive market with no choice but to pay more . . . either by their parents or, more likely, with student loans . . . and the colleges can essentially set the price knowing that students can get loans because they’re guaranteed. Then, when they default, the taxpayers pay. This is anything but free. It’s banks and schools profiting from rate-fixing while the federal government goes along for the ride.
10 years ago at 3:43 pmNot on-campus, off-campus. Sorry. Built into the loans. Oops.
10 years ago at 3:45 pmI used to cover these markets too and they have been good investments for the most part, but just like every other succesful asset the dumber money is starting to pour in. For example, 3 years ago there were none of these high-end apartments on my old state school campus. Now they dominate the landscape and the number of New projects in the pipeline would terrify me as an investor.
10 years ago at 7:51 pmThe frat house meets most of these needs, just sub out valet trash service for pledges and the pool table for rotting corn hole boards in the yard.
10 years ago at 11:24 amFuck Florida State, Fuck Arizona and Arizona state. Bunch of dick lickers.
10 years ago at 11:25 amBacketball huh. Words are hard.
10 years ago at 11:42 amAs many of these students rack up massive amounts of student loan debt while earning degrees that won’t pay shit. When my father went to school, he lived in a 50 year old 3 bedroom house with 4 other guys for the first 3 years. His senior year he got to live in his chapter house. He always told me that at times it was miserable, but when he graduated then went to vet school he was able to do so debt free. That really made a difference when he got his DVM then had to take on debt to start his practice.
10 years ago at 11:49 amYou’re dad is a douchebag.
10 years ago at 12:51 pm*your
But still spot on.
10 years ago at 1:15 pmThe residents here are total dipshits. Ping pong is fucking exhilarating
10 years ago at 12:06 pmFurther evidence: golden tee and golf simulator are last. Special place in hell for these mongoloids
10 years ago at 12:08 pmAnd half of these idiots will pay for it with loans and then spend the rest of their lives paying it off.
10 years ago at 12:43 pmAnd then complain about their debt, dye their hair blue, get a lip ring, and vote for Bernie Sanders.
10 years ago at 3:11 pmI think most of this can be accredited to a rise in out-of-state applications. Madison is the perfect example of this being that the past 20 years the city has built 10-15 new high-rise apartments with the latest featuring a roof-top pool and a courtyard in the middle of the building. While these things are great for the city and the campus, it makes collegiate life a lot more expensive.
10 years ago at 1:28 pmThe construction quality of most of these places are so shitty. It was so easy to break doors or punch holes in walls that it wasn’t really fun anymore.
10 years ago at 1:32 pmMy senior house was a 3 bedroom, 1 bath shithole for $420 a month that we kept at 59 degrees and still paid almost $300/mo for gas
10 years ago at 2:16 pm