Student housing faced a difficult start to the 2020-2021 academic year, but the sector has proven resilient as COVID-19 continues to sow uncertainty.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last March, colleges and universities across the U.S. switched to online learning and sent students home. In the following months, schools mapped out the 2020-21 academic year, with an emphasis on virtual learning as well as stringent safety measures to keep students socially distant. All of which would affect the demand, the value, and even the design of student housing. “Overall, the market has held up resoundingly well,” says Jaclyn Fitts, executive vice president for the national student housing team at CBRE. This fall, the company polled operators representing some 600,000 beds, a significant portion of the operators in the sector, says Fitts. “We looked at October 2019 versus October 2020, and overall, the sector is only about 3.5 percent behind in occupancy, year-over-year.” The new watchword for campus housing has become “de-densification.” Schools eased on-campus residency requirements, and many left dorms empty to use as quarantine space if needed. Research from Newmark shows similar trends. “Occupancies are within 250 to 300 basis points from where we were last year, which is pretty remarkable,” says Ryan Lang, vice chairman, multifamily capital markets, at Newmark. Click to read more at www.ccim.com.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Healthcare real estate advisory, development and management firm Realty Trust Group (RTG) announces expansion into two key regional healthcare markets, expanding its geographic presence and service offerings. “We are excited to announce our continued investments into Florida and Texas. Although we have previously served clients in both states, our new offices and resources will allow us to better serve clients across both states and regionally,” said Greg Gheen, RTG Co-Founder and President. “Our comprehensive healthcare real estate service platform is focused on helping hospitals and physician practices identify opportunities to align real estate with larger strategic initiatives from planning through implementation; allowing clients to realize cost savings and improve their market position.” RTG’s expansion into Florida will include a new office in Tampa located at 3000 Bayport Drive. The Tampa office is the firm’s sixth regional office and will be led by healthcare real estate industry veteran and RTG Vice President Thomas Wittenberg. He brings 27 years of real estate experience, with extensive sales, marketing and development accomplishments spanning the healthcare, life science, financial, institutional and government sectors. Prior to joining RTG, he served as Senior Vice President of Healthcare Development and Life Science for a Houston-based commercial real estate firm. Click to read more at www.prnewswire.com.

Build-to-rent (BTR) is a relatively new asset class that has been quietly gaining traction among both boutique and institutional investors. This exciting new asset class is exactly what it sounds like: a community of high-quality detached single-family rental properties rife with shared amenities. Historically, a developer building a community of single-family homes would follow the traditional merchant build-to-sell business model in which each home is partitioned off and sold individually. Under the build-to-rent model, a community of single-family homes is developed with the intention of appealing to the rental market, and the community operates similarly to a traditional multifamily asset. The real innovation in the build-to-rent space lies in the improved experience for tenants. BTR provides tenants with all of the best aspects of single-family rentals and upgrades the experience by developing all homes inside a professionally managed, amenity-rich community all without burdening residents with HOA costs. BTR properties have broad appeal. They are simultaneously attractive to seniors, singles and families. BTR appeals to seniors because it allows them to downsize, cash out their equity and avoid the hassle of homeownership. BTR also appeals to singles who want the privacy of a single-family home but still want a sense of community. Finally, families thrive in BTR properties because each property features a private backyard, providing each family with ample space to raise their kids. Click to read more at www.forbes.com.

If you’ve never done battle with your local appraisal district over the value of your property, you’ve likely saved yourself from a huge headache, but alternately missed out on a huge opportunity to save yourself a significant amount on property taxes. “If you are not aggressively protesting your value and pushing for appeals on your property, you are not managing your tax base appropriately and are most likely paying more than your fair share in property taxes,” said Hunter Lane, vice president of Lane Property Tax Advocates. The company got its start in 2009 when founder Michael Lane, who at the time had more than 20 years of appraisal experience, attended a hearing with the Harris County Appraisal Review Board. “Like the majority of property owners, he left frustrated as he had been denied a correction for his hearing,” Hunter said. “He then decided something needed to be done with the current property tax system and founded Lane Property Tax
Advocates.” The full-service property tax advisory firm has experience in all facets of commercial real estate. It boasts a team of tax professionals with more than 100 years of combined experience. Click to read more at www.rednews.com.