UNC Schools Seek To Boost Affordable Off-Campus Housing

As enrollment rates surge across the Research Triangle, universities are looking for ways to offer new affordable off-campus units to students.

The University of North Carolina system, which consists of 16 public universities, including UNC-Chapel Hill, reached a record 256,000 students last fall, up 3.4% from 2024. But university campuses don’t have enough space to accommodate the influx, panelists said last month at Bisnow’s Triangle Student Housing Conference in Raleigh.

With the surging costs of construction, some universities are looking at housing options farther from campus. And some are collaborating with off-campus providers in an attempt to help keep rents low for their students.

“There clearly is growth at universities to support the additional supply, but it calls into question affordability,” said Jeff Bartholomew, executive vice president of development and construction services at The Preiss Co. He added that student housing close to campus is convenient and walkable but expensive, while housing farther away is cheaper but requires residents to take public transportation.  

In October, Cardinal Group Development and PGIM broke ground on a new student housing development near the North Carolina State University campus in Raleigh. The boutique-style project will feature 291 beds across 147 units. 

Preiss’ Signature Varsity student housing project is also underway near the NC State campus and will deliver next year, Bartholomew said during the event. The development will include 679 beds, a rooftop pool and an esports lounge and responds to demand for “walkable, high amenity housing” near campus, according to The News & Observer.

As new projects are underway to accommodate student demand, developers must consider factors like affordability and accessibility for student residents, panelists said. 

“You have to think of things like, how reliable is the transportation from the public transit system in terms of going from our campus to said off-campus properties?” said Durell Hurst, director of housing at NC Central University.

Because off-campus life is “not necessarily conducive in terms of affordability for our students,” NC Central is looking to “better collaborate with off-campus partners in these complexes,” such as by holding off-campus housing fairs, he said. The school is also working to teach students, many of whom are living on their own for the first time, how to manage the responsibilities that come with having their own apartments, like maintaining a lease and paying utilities. 

Developers looking to build new housing are facing high costs of construction. Building material prices in the Carolinas are up approximately 7% year-over-year and 6.2% in the first four months of 2026, according to a May report by Associated Builders and Contractors.

“Construction costs have really dramatically increased over the last few years,” said Eric Leath, senior director at Landmark Properties. He also noted an “increase in land prices and land seller expectations.”

The high costs translate to higher rental prices. Bartholomew said the Research Triangle saw “an unprecedented run over the past few years of rent growth.”

Schools across the UNC system are still pursuing more than $600M worth of new on-campus student housing, according to the Triangle Business Journal. NCSU is building two residence halls with 1,354 student beds, and UNC-Chapel Hill is beginning construction on its first new residence hall in decades this summer.

But when it comes to off-campus housing, building developments farther away from campus might be a solution for affordability, Bartholomew said. 

“If you want that walkable product, fall-out-of-bed to campus, you're going to have to pay top dollar for it, and then you're going to have to max out what you can do on that site just to make the deal work,” he said. 

While the product farther out “may not be walkable” and “may require a shuttle to campus,” he said, “the land valuations are more reasonable, your construction costs will be lower, and that will hopefully provide additional value for students.” 

Other developers may look to renovating existing obsolete properties, like offices, as a way to achieve financially feasible build-outs.  

But adapting obsolete buildings into housing developments is often not worth the cost, especially because specific needs are required for student residences, said Mark Reilly, vice president of W.M Jordan Co. “A lot of these older structures have challenges, and then to bring them up to code compliance also adds some costs,” he said.