Resort-Style Student Housing: A Growing Trend In Real Estate

For the past 10 years, real estate developers and investors have been pioneering a previously unexplored market, resort-style student housing. While very convenient, college campuses provide housing that is often extremely expensive, while leaving students short on privacy and high-end amenities. College dorm rooms are also frequently filled long before the demand for housing is met, leaving hundreds of students on the waiting list. On the other hand, off-campus housing may be farther away, but the services and amenities included in the cost of rent are valuable enough to students to move out of the dorms. In other cases, universities are focusing finances on improving academics and are turning over housing development, renovation and management to private investors in exchange for a cut of the profits.

Limitations Shape New Opportunities For Resort-Style Student Housing

As land near college campuses becomes scarce, building projects become more vertical, moving parking within the new buildings, also known as podium structures. Luxury architectural styles have moved away from traditional and into more contemporary and edgy designs. Social and study spaces have become larger, meaning an increase in size for clubhouses; at the same time, high-end finishing features like flooring, hardware, kitchens and appliances have become a new standard for a large number of students.

Other enticing features of resort-style student housing are the larger living quarters and furnishings included in apartments. Students aren’t often able to own much furniture, nor would they have the means to move it when changing residences without incurring costly moving charges. This introduced the need for high-quality furniture in the student housing space, as students expect the luxuriousness of the apartment community to follow them into their private lodgings.

Expectations Include Higher Environmental Standards

Not only have students’ tastes increased in extravagance, they’ve also shifted to reflect environmental-consciousness. Young adults have grown up with higher awareness of toxins, emissions and waste, and place higher values on safe materials, production processes, conservation and sustainability. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is an international green building certification system which accredits building projects that meet high levels of standards – certification levels include: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Student apartments that follow green practices and are LEED certified are all the more desirable as a place to call home.

Northland’s educational furniture offerings cater to dorm-style living, featuring long-lasting functional and practical pieces like desks, chests of drawers and bunk-beds. In the realm of resort-style student housing, upgrading to Northland Furniture’s education line would meet the expectations that the furnishings match the sophistication of the surrounding environment, as well as the need for a wider range of furniture types. Northland uses only water-based, low VOC stains which qualify for LEED credits, as well as pre-catalyzed lacquers. They also use a combination of solid and engineered woods which decreases the amount of waste incurred, and increases the amount of utilized wood product to 95%. Maintaining domestic headquarters and material sourcing keeps environmental costs of product transportation to a minimum.

While not every trend is worth following, Nortland Furniture is committed to providing the resort-style student housing industry with beautifully designed furniture made with environmentally-friendly processes and materials.