Preleasing is off to a strong start for the 2025-2026 school year, with the Yardi 200 markets reaching 85.3% by June. According to the latest national student housing report from Yardi Matrix, this is up 160 basis points (bps) from June 2024 and 20 bps from June 2023.
Fifty universities were already over 90% preleased in June, with 10 already at 100%. Yardi Matrix attributed some of the brisk preleasing activity to rising college enrollment following a peak in high school graduates this year.
Some of the notable schools with strong preleasing include Ole Miss, which was 100% preleased in June; Mizzou at 99.3%; Western Carolina University at 98.8%; and Virginia Tech at 98.7%.
Twenty universities were less than 70% preleased in June, with many trailing last year’s pace. Student housing at The University of Texas at Arlington was only 53.2% preleased in June, 9.3% behind 2024’s pace. Other laggards include Temple University, with preleasing at 61.5% and 5% behind last year’s pace; Utah Valley University at 67.5% and 6.4% behind; and Sam Houston University at 69% and 24.6% behind.
Rent growth has slowed at the Yardi 200 schools over the past three months as operators focus on filling beds as the academic year approaches. According to Yardi Matrix, average rents in June decreased to $909 per bed, down 0.9% from the March peak. Year-over-year growth has decelerated to 1.3%, the weakest since April 2021.
“Strong rent growth has been concentrated at major state schools with limited new supply and/or rising enrollment,” noted the report. “Conversely, rent declines have been common in markets facing new supply and/or competition from a weak conventional apartment sector.”
Of the Yardi 200, 13 universities posted rent growth above 10% in June. These are in markets with little to no new off-campus deliveries in recent years. The highest in all markets, Ole Miss rents surged 21.1% in June, driven by a 25% enrollment jump since 2021 and only one new 528-bed development added during that period. Mizzou also saw 10.9% growth in June with flat enrollment and no new supply since 2017.
On the other end, 73 universities saw year-over-year rent declines. Rents at Arizona State University fell 10.2% year over year in June amid flat enrollment and growing multifamily competition. Seventeen multifamily developments with 6,779 beds were delivered nearby campus since 2021, with another 2,145 student beds slated to deliver by fall 2026. Rents also dropped 9.7% at the University of Tennessee with nearly 3,900 beds in the pipeline.
In 2025 so far, 50 student housing properties have been sold—fewer than during the same period in the last two years. However, the number of beds sold is higher than in both 2024 and 2023. The average price per bed reached nearly $94,000, above the $73,500 average recorded between 2020 and 2024.
Looking ahead, Yardi Matrix warned that challenges exist for the student housing sector, including federal cuts to higher education funding, reductions to student loan programs, and an expected drop in international student enrollment.
