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Student housing in Milan covers one-sixth of the demand
31 December, Re Quadro
Students in Milan are 15.4% of the total demand represented by over 80 thousand commuting students. The market caters to nearly 175 thousand students, 3.8% of whom are foreigners. The figures are taken from the First Observatory on new housing solutions for students, young people and workers by Scenari Immobiliari with the collaboration of Camplus, the leading provider of student housing in Italy.
Universities in Milan contributed to the appeal of the city, thanks to their international vocation. Milan is, in fact, one of the favourite destinations for international exchange students. The creation of new departments as well as of new universities, like Bovisa and Bicocca, helped in the decentralisation of Milan’s university system, radically changing some parts of the city. This decentralisation has been possible thanks also to the improvements in the public transport system.
Another factor for the development of the university system in the city has been the implementation of student halls, mainly by the initiative of the same universities. The offer from Pbsa is currently able to satisfy the demand from those students who cannot afford accommodation.
Today, a large part of the projects concern Bocconi. Its campus is currently being extended with the addition of a new student hall, along with other two student residences nearby implemented by Hines. This latter aims at introducing in the Milan market the formula of luxury student halls catering not only to students but also to young professionals.
Concerning Camplus, the company currently manages 888 beds in Milan and 240 in the Milano-Humanitas campus.
For what concerns rentals, the report by Scenari Immobiliari and Camplus shows how the rather high demand is reducing the offer, in combination with a significant growth of rent prices. The average price for a single room in Milan is set at 560 euro a month, the highest in Italy.
Rents in prime and central areas remain the highest, while the gap between low-range prices and high-range prices is gradually reducing as the demand is moving outside the city centre. Moreover, the offer has considerably shrunk, especially in the areas outside the old town, while the city centre concentrates 20% of the total rental offer.
Student housing in Italy
As shown by the report, the Italian student housing market has a potential of 50 thousand beds with the possibility of doubling the current offer. Such a number of beds implies investments for about 3 billion euro triggering a growth of the offer at triple the pace reported in the last ten years.
Student housing is currently provided by organisations with an agreement with the regional authorities and by the Italian association for colleges and university halls. They cover together 8.6% of the demand which is equal to 52 thousand beds. 620 thousand students are looking for accommodation on the private market, including international exchange students.
On a long-term perspective, it’s likely that the Italian market will align to similar markets, not necessarily in terms of the number of commuting students, rather in terms of characteristics of the university system, covering approximately 15% of the total demand.
The market of professionally-managed residences specialising in short-term accommodation relies on the demand from young professionals and those students not looking on the market of student residences, representing in total 800 thousand people.
Source: Re Quadro
Translator: Cristina Ambrosi