5 Reasons Student Housing is Better than Regular Rentals for Students Today

The term student housing is still largely associated with dorms and other on-campus accommodations, but that’s finally changing thanks to the arrival of luxury off-campus student housing. These freestanding complexes aren’t usually owned or managed by the university they’re associated with, but they’re still located as close as possible to the campus and focus primarily on renting to students. This kind of off-campus housing offers some of the best student living arrangements thanks to these five benefits.

1. Easier Acceptance

Unlike most off-campus housing options, student apartments specifically want young adults to rent from them. Individual landlords and large property management companies alike tend to be wary of college students as renters due to their short-term lease needs and rapid life changes. Even if a student renter stays in the same rental property for a full four to six years as they seek a degree, some rental managers would still prefer a longer commitment than that. Since properties designed for off-campus student living obviously understand the habits and patterns of the college student, they’re much more likely to accept your application even when you don’t have a career and plan to pay for your rent with loans or parental help. This is a normal arrangement in student housing, while it’s more unusual to the landlord who is only used to renting to families and single professionals.

Some counties and cities also establish rental restrictions to keep students from filling up the housing needed by families. When colleges are located in or near residential neighbors, many of the empty homes and apartments around it may not accept students for this reason alone. Purpose-built student apartments are often the only exception to this rule, making them your only choice other than on-campus dorms.

2. Tailor Made Amenities

The popularity of off-campus housing is largely driven by the freedom it offers. Dorms come with all sorts of restrictions from limits on guests to restrictions on when you can come and go. Yet you can get much more than just a curfew-free apartment by choosing off-campus accommodations. Despite being tailored to students, off-campus housing also tends to skew towards the luxurious. There’s a big difference between the spartan concrete-walled dorms of on-campus living and the private bathrooms, rooftop pools, and gated parking offered by a luxury complex.

Since student housing is primarily occupied by residents that share a common age group and many interests, the amenities in these apartments are more appropriate to your lifestyle than what you might find in traditional housing. Instead of tennis courts and weekly bingo games, you’ll find high-tech games rooms, study lounges, and grilling stations for entertaining your friends. There’s no need to outfit your apartment with pool tables or large screen TVs when these amenities are all included with your monthly rent.

To everyone at B.HOM Student Living, our properties are not merely a place to sleep, rather they are active and vibrant living-learning communities. Our dedicated teams help our student-residents get the most (and more) out of everything that college life has to offer.

3. Close Access to School

Most popular colleges and universities accept far more students than they have on-campus housing to support. While private off-campus rentals may help fill this gap, the houses and apartments are often quite a distance from the campus and therefore less than convenient for the renters. Dorm living allows a student to stroll to class rather than drive in many cases, which is far more difficult when you’re living miles from school. Off-campus housing designated for students is almost always located as close as possible to the campus. Despite its name, some properties are even located on or bordering the campus for easy access. You can reduce the amount you drive by hundreds of miles per year, and therefore save on both gas and maintenance, just by finding housing a mile or two closer to school.

4. Affordable Prices

Luxury housing and affordable prices are not always associated with each other, but they do go hand in hand when it comes to off-campus student housing.

Since these rental properties are primarily competing with dorms and on-campus houses for the same market, they tend to offer lower monthly rents than you’ll find from the college itself. Considering that you also get more freedom and amenities for that rent amount, the savings are even greater than they might appear on paper. In many areas, housing designed for students also tends to offer a more affordable price range than the general rental market. Non-student rentals are often marketed to families with two incomes or high-earning professionals, which means the average student wouldn’t be able to compete financially for the same lease. The companies that build and manage student living properties understand that their target market is relying on part-time jobs, scholarships, loans, and parental help to afford their apartment, so the price points of these units tend to better fit the student budget.

5. Appropriate Lease Terms

The college experience is broken down into many relatively short units of time, and those semester and term periods can make it tricky to find housing.

Many landlords and management companies are looking for tenants that will stay for years and therefore require lease terms of anywhere from one to five years. When you are considering a transfer to a different school in six months, signing a three-year lease just isn’t going to work for you. This is another major benefit of choosing housing tailored to your specific experience. The lease officers of student apartments are obviously aware that students need the flexibility to come and go as their educational goals change, and this understanding is reflected in flexible leasing terms based around the schedule of the school they’re serving.

Some student apartments even let you make arrangements from semester to semester for the greatest flexibility. You also benefit if you decide to take a break from school or transition into the workplace before graduating. On-campus housing is limited only to current students. If you take a break or leave school, you’ll generally have a very short time frame for finding alternative accommodation. In contrast, private student housing is allowed to set its own rules regarding non-student residents. This means that most places are happy to let you finish your lease, even if you stop attending classes, so you have plenty of time to decide what to do next.