PBSA sector stability partly due to southern European influx

Purpose built student accommodation has proved in the last 18 to 24 months that it is delivering stable rental flows said Rainer Nonnengässer, executive chairman of student accommodation and microliving specialist International Campus.

“It has proven to be resilient relatively but also in absolute terms compared to other asset classes,” he added. In particular, he compares it with hospitality and retail assets.

Talking to Real Asset Insight’s Richard Betts he said that if you look back at student numbers over the last 20 to 30 years, and at international student movements, “there has always been a peak after a crisis”.

“We have seen that in the ‘90s we have seen that in the in the early 2000s we have seen it again after the financial crisis in 2010-11 because, for obvious reasons, investment in education is always an investment into an individual’s future.”

He said that in the countries where International Campus has a presence there has been an influx from southern Europe because their countries have been hit harder by the crisis and they are looking to their future employment prospects.

Click on the video above to watch the full interview or listen to the podcast below.