Student Housing REITs - Back To School, Finally
- American Campus Communities - along with the broader student housing sector - have delivered a swifter-than-expected rebound as students at flagship universities returned to campus for the 2021-2022 academic year.
- Despite the broader enrollment declines at the national level due to a myriad of short-term and structural headwinds, student housing fundamentals in these top-tier university markets have improved above pre-pandemic.
- Non-student apartment rents are soaring by double-digit rates, which allowed ACC to achieve robust rental rate growth of 3.8% and occupancy at 95.8% for the Fall 2021 semester- near record-highs.
- Beneficiaries of the soaring rents across the nation, ACC also delivered double-digit same-store NOI growth last quarter and now expects to see a full return to pre-pandemic FFO in full-year 2022.
- ACC has made several positive strides to unlock value through improved corporate governance and capital allocation. Given its deep NAV discount and the ample institutional interest in student housing, ACC is also a takeout candidate.
