U.S. student housing occupancy reached 95.1% for the start of the 2025 academic year, the second-highest level since 2019, Yardi Matrix reported. The strong preleasing reported earlier in the year consistently carried through to fall move-ins for the 1,600 student housing properties serving the Yardi 200 colleges and universities, the firm said in its latest National Student Housing Report.
The majority of schools (112) saw occupancy increase year over year, although 73 reported lower occupancy compared to September 2024. However, just 32 schools failed to reach 90% occupancy, compared to 50 the year prior.
Conversely, rent growth across the Yardi 200 slowed to 0.8% year-over-year as of September, declining from 4.5% at the start of the academic season. More than half the Yardi 200 markets saw lower annual rent growth than in 2024. Yet several markets bucked the national trend, posting stronger leasing season rent gains than the previous year.
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