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Nova SBE Campus Pressures Housing Prices in Carcavelos. What Are Students’ Options?
12 November 2018
The arrival of the new Nova SBE campus in Carcavelos has led to an increase in the price of houses and individual rooms for rent. The university advised its student of several options, but not even all of those are affordable.
Carcavelos has gone to university, or rather, the university has gone to Carcavelos. The recent arrival of Nova SBE’s new campus has attracted thousands of students and invigorated the housing market, but for those students who want to live near one of the best business schools in the world, housing is not always affordable. Housing prices have risen by 45% in two years, and university residences have monthly rents of around 500 euros. The Cascais City Council intends to make new homes available, but Economia Online (ECO) believes that their prices will be in line with existing market rates.
In the Union of Parishes of Carcavelos and Parede, where the university built its new campus, prices have skyrocketed. According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), from the beginning of 2016 until the first quarter of this year, housing prices rose by 45.5% to reach an average of 2,281 euros per square meter. The unions increase was the highest amount the four parishes of Cascais.
Construction on the campus began in September 2016, and since then the market in Carcavelos has exploded upwards. Remax has followed the market closely, seeing an increase in demand, both by potential buyers and renters. “People who want to buy are usually motivated by having children studying in the area, as well as for putting [the property] on the rental market, due to the increase in demand,” the real estate agency told ECO.
Since the beginning of the year, Remax has seen sales prices rise from an average of 2,500 to 3,000 euros per square meter, with rental prices rising from eight to 14 euros per square meter. “The area is still developing, making it appealing to younger families. There are also investors who, considering the price of the square meter for rentals, are motivated to invest here,” it added.
Paulo Figueiredo, of It Imobiliária, told ECO that the university’s arrival had led a “frenzy” that has lasted for more than a year and which “which materialised rapidly after the beginning of construction.” The agency specialises in the property market in Cascais and believes that the uptick in demand will maintain itself for eight to ten years. “At the moment, there are no houses and production has been slow to respond to growing demand, a factor that will not be easy to reverse in the short term,” the executive stated.
New school. New location. What are students’ options?
The approximately 3,000 students who are enrolled at the Nova SBE Carcavelos campus can opt to reside in Lisbon or, for those who prefer to live near the school, in Carcavelos. It is well known by now that prices in the centre of the capital have been steadily climbing, rising 46.8% from the beginning of 2016 to the first quarter of this year, according to the INE’s data. The average price per square meter is currently at 2,753 euros.
Rental properties for students are also becoming more and more expensive. On the Uniplaces website, individuals rooms cost, on average, 367 euros per month. However, a brief search on the platform found rooms whose cost can easily exceed 1,000 euros per month. “Demand has increased significantly, and prices have too,” says Inês Amaral, head of Portugal and Italy for the online platform. Contrary to expectations though, most students prefer to stay in Lisbon, “in areas close to the metro’s green line for easy access to the train line and the university.”
Surprisingly, renting a room in Carcavelos can also be more expensive. The cost of the average room on the platform current stands at 459 euros per month, 92 euros more than in the centre of Lisbon, according to the executive. “To date, we already have a supply of more than 150 rooms in the area of Carcavelos and more than 700 rooms along the [train] line. We are actively seeking to increase our supply on the train line to respond to the increasing demand that we have received in the area,” Ms Amaral said.
Uniplaces is one of the entities with which Nova SBE has a partnership. The platform offers a 10% discount on its service fee for students enrolled at the university, in addition to priority over students from other institutions.
The university’s website shows that it has partnerships with several other student residences and platforms, in addition to Uniplaces, but not all in Carcavelos. One of them is the Collegiate, located in Lisbon, which rents studio-flats per semester: prices start at 4,730 euros for one person and can exceed 15,000 euros. In the case of a studio for two people, the room costs about 3,700 euros per semester.
Another option is the Chalet Júlia, with single rooms costing 560 monthly and double rooms rising to 860 euros per month. Inlife, in Lisbon, also has rooms for between 350 and 500 euros and one-bedroom flats costing around 700 euros. For a 24.5-euro fee, the student can visit three possible flats, called a Housing Trip, Filipe Pires explained to ECO. SeaHousing, in Carcavelos, offers rooms for between 325 and 460 euros.
Nova SBE’s university residence is run by Milestone. The university’s website has flats available for between 545 euros and 695 euros per month for a 35 square meter flat with a double bed and a balcony.
Cascais City Council to create residences. However, “rents will not differ much” from market rates
Just like homes, the prices for individual rooms have also been affected by the rise in real estate prices. While rooms could be found for around 200 euros a few years ago, now it is difficult to find them for less than €400. Given the demonstrations by students against speculation and the lack of residences, the Cascais City Council decided to take action in Carcavelos. However, the local authority also added that is a problem for the Portuguese state
“We will soon launch a major housing program in Cascais to address part of the problem of the huge demand for university housing in the area. We have several projects for university residences. We understand that these measures will mitigate the problem of lack of supply in terms of university residences,” Miguel Pinto Luz, the council’s vice president, told ECO.
Asked about the prices of these “thousand new residences” owned by private investors, the answer was clear: “rents will be set at market rates, they will not differ much [from current prices].”
However, Mr Luz stressed that “this is not a problem for the municipality, but an obligation of the state and the university itself.” “We will be filling in for them as we have in dozens of areas, to resolve a serious problem since we have one of the best business schools in the world in Cascais and we do not have enough residences for all the students who want to attend it,” he concluded.
Original Story: Economia Online – Rita Neto
Photo: D.R.
Translation: Richard Turner