Student Housing Market Know-How & Well-Designed Websites a “must”.
LAS VEGAS, N.V. & RALEIGH, N.C., February 25, 2015 – Preiss Company (TPCO) executives, Susan Folckemer (Chief Development Officer) and Adam Byrley (Executive Vice President of Property Management) were recent participants on two key panels at the National Apartment Association (NAA) Student Housing Conference held in Las Vegas, NV on February 17th and 18th.
The panels, titled “Student Housing Market Watch” and “Student Housing Community Website Do’s and Don’ts” discussed topics ranging from student housing market supply to the use of stock photography and mobile websites.
Folckemer’s panel, “Student Housing Market Watch” included five industry “decision makers” with Folckemer representing Development & Acquisitions. The 90-minute session discussed enrollment growth, the changing landscape of future students, target markets, national supply projections, future design concepts, public vs. private partnerships and the growing institutional capital still entering the student housing sector.
According to Folckemer, demand for student housing remains strong with continued enrollment growth, lack of current supply in many markets and increasing desires from students to live in purpose built student housing over the conventional market. “There are more students sitting in primary and secondary education desks today than ever before,” says Folckemer. “ “High School graduation rates are increasing, more students are attending public 4 year universities and students are taking longer to graduate then ever before. The new average is approximately 6 years.”
The panel investigated the market dynamics between first tier and second tier universities.
“Top-tier universities have been a target for new development over the past 15 years, however, the trend for secondary and tertiary market growth has increased significantly. During 2014, TPCO entered in to eight new markets. Most of these markets would be considered second tier Universities. With continued enrollment growth and on campus housing constraints in some of these markets, more student housing developers are finding these Universities attractive development options,” says Folckemer.
Folckemer also discussed the increased activity in the Public Private sector. “With a combination of hits to endowments during this last recession, State funding cuts and the quality of much of the existing university housing—which in turn can lead to recruitment issues, universities are looking to private partners to design, finance and manage new on-campus housing facilities.”
In another conference presentation, Adam Byrley, Executive VP of Property Management for TPCO co-presented with User Experience Designer for On-Site’s, Dave Luciano, to discuss the ultimate “Do’s and Don’ts” of community websites.
As part of the presentation, Byrley and Luciano used numerous TPCO community websites as a reference point to showcase what the company is currently doing on the website front.
The presentation highlighted that apartment communities, should be changing their marketing strategies to target the newest generation, Generation Z, also called the iGeneration. It also stressed that marketing to Millenials in the student housing market has passed and is ultimately “cycling out” of the student housing demographic.
“Generation 2 has always grown up with the internet, so it’s extremely important that we determine what this new generation wants in a website”, said Byrley.
Byrley and Luciano also indicated that having a mobile-enhanced website is a “must”, in addition to a minimum of five calls-to-action and minimizing the use of stock photography.
About the Preiss Company:
Celebrating its 28th year, Raleigh-based, The Preiss Company specializes in the development, acquisition and management of off-campus student housing. The company currently is the nation’s third largest privately held owner-operator of private student housing. The company’s portfolio currently is comprised of over 21,000 beds located in 15 states and 18 markets. For more information, visit www.tpco.com.
