The U.S. student housing sector has remained robust this year, with a strong pipeline of projects in the works. But developers are getting pickier.

Stagnating student housing rents and overall slowed university enrollment growth are prompting some developers to narrow their focus to just the top-tier institutions that are steadily drawing in students, panelists said during Bisnow’s Georgia Student Housing Conference last week. 

“I wouldn’t necessarily go out and build a lot of things at this point,” CCI Real Estate CEO Jeff Warwick said when asked what he would invest in with $300M in equity. 

“I think I like to have dry powder when the markets shift and change, and so I think I'd hold some of it back,” said Warwick, whose firm is redeveloping the Baptist Collegiate Ministries building on the University of Georgia campus into a 353-bed student housing mid-rise.

Developers were underway with nearly 10,000 student housing units across 108 U.S. universities, encompassing more than 29,000 beds, according to data compiled by Yardi Matrix. More than half of those projects are at and around the top 10 universities in the nation, and Arizona State University at Tempe, North Carolina State University, Texas A&M University at College Station and Florida State University in Tallahassee are leading the pack with more than 8,000 new beds combined, according to Yardi Matrix.

Enrollment growth is increasingly concentrated among large flagship universities and major state-supported schools, while many smaller institutions continue to face enrollment pressure. 

The University of Georgia — the third-largest university in Georgia, with more than 43,500 students — commands 77% of the total units of new student housing set to be delivered this year and next in the state, with nearly 1,300 units, according to Yardi Matrix. 

Strong enrollment growth has Athens, Georgia-based student housing giant Landmark Properties focused on top universities for new projects, Managing Director Andrew Costas said during the event at The Carlyle event hall. 

Costas said Landmark focuses on universities like Georgia Tech, UGA, Georgia State University and even Kennesaw State University, where potential student applications continue to rise, though the universities themselves are growing more selective about who they accept.

“Georgia Tech, Georgia State, Kennesaw State — all of those degrees are valuable, and the amount of money it costs to get that degree is a value proposition for that student,” Costas said. “I think the schools that will continue to do well provide that value proposition. And so that's where we focus our efforts.”

Student housing rents in the U.S. rose 2% year-over-year to $927 per bed in August, according to Yardi Matrix. But that followed five consecutive months of decline. Student bed rents fell from $930 in June, according to Yardi, driven in large part by declining international student enrollment.  

Overall enrollment in U.S. universities inched up by 0.6% to a little over 1 million students for fall 2026, compared to 1.8% growth during the same period last year.

The slowdown in growth was precipitated by a student housing building boom in the U.S. between 2022 and 2024, according to a report from Walker & Dunlop, which focuses on real estate investment sales transactions. 

“The recent slowdown in rent growth is not a demand issue; it is almost entirely a function of supply,” Walker & Dunlop said in its report. 

Institutional investors are also focused on investing in housing near top-tier universities. Student housing sales fell more than 20% year-over-year in the second quarter, with $1.5B in transactions, according to a study by Capright. But that was a 22% increase from the first quarter of 2026, according to Capright, with large transactions dominating the sector, including Ares Management and The Scion Group’s more than 7,500-bed, 12-property acquisition for $910M in May.

Scion also partnered with funds managed by Brookfield Properties this month to refinance 39 student housing assets for $1.4B with a two-year, floating-rate, interest-only mortgage loan, according to Multi-Housing News.

Warwick said capital is flowing freely, and he expects to see more major institutional investors buy up and consolidate ownership of what was once a niche investment sector.

“I think the student housing sector has worked its way through the awkward teenage years into sort of the early stages of maturity,” Warwick said.