What Women Want … in Student Housing

Since the late ‘70s, female enrollment in college has been on the rise. By 2013, almost 57% of all college students were female. ("That is the best news I've ever heard," said most high school senior boys.) That has developers examining how to appeal to the ladies. Here’s the top three trends.

1) College Experience

College girls today are still looking for that college experience of living with roommates, but they don’t want to sacrifice their privacy, says Axiometrics national account manager Kelli Smith. To accomplish that, developers are creating floor plans with a one-to-one bed-to-bath ratio. (What girl wants to wait to brush her teeth in the morning because her roommate is taking a 30-minute shower?) With the modernization of the student housing sector, private bathrooms are growing increasingly popular, she says.

2) Closet Space

What girl doesn’t love a large closet? Their clothes may land everywhere from the floor to their beds after they actually move in, but a larger closest definitely gets leases signed, Kelli says.

3) Tanning Beds

You wouldn’t think girls would have much use for a tanning bed in Arizona, where you can lay out by the pool from March to October, but they do, Kelli says. Of the 12 by-the-bed apartment communities that Axiometrics tracks at ASU, nine of them offer tanning beds as an amenity. Of the 21 by-the-bed properties that Axiometrics survey at the University of Arizona, 16 of them include tanning beds.