Student housing preleasing off to strong start, while rents decline: Yardi

Student housing preleasing off to strong start, while rents decline: Yardi

The deceleration in rent growth has been pronounced across major student housing markets, a new 2026–2027 academic year report shows.

Last year, some student housing companies were impacted by the Trump administration’s immigration policies, which muted international student enrollment. Yardi collected fall 2025 total enrollment data for 184 of the Yardi 200 universities that counted 4.9 million students, up 1.8% year over year versus 2.1% growth in fall 2024. 

“The largest enrollment gains were recorded at Kentucky, Texas State, Kennesaw State and

Illinois, while 54 schools saw enrollment declines, led primarily by private institutions and tertiary state schools in the Midwest and West,” according to Yardi.

So far, student leasing activity appears to be pacing comparably to the 2025-2026 academic year...

Dive Brief:

  • The student housing rental season for the 2026-2027 academic year is off to a solid start, early data analyzed by Yardi indicates. Its report, released Wednesday, shows preleasing for the Yardi 200 schools reached 52.3% in January, up nearly 15% from about 45.6% in January 2025.

  • Although a majority of Yardi 200 schools are pacing ahead of last year, performance varies widely by market and remains closely tied to recent and upcoming supply, per the Santa Barbara, California-based real estate analytics firm.

  • Rent growth has continued to decelerate sharply, and average rent per bed ticked down year over year in January. That deceleration has been notable across major student housing markets, and rent prices are slumping in many areas this year.
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RSK: Even though rents are dipping slightly, demand is still there.

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- - Volume: 26 - WEEK: 9 Date: 2/24/2026 3:31:41 PM -