A dire shortage of on-campus student housing presents opportunities for local developers to enter the private student housing market, locally based Pierce Education Properties president/CEO Fred Pierce said at an event presented by the local chapter of the Urban Land Institute. Fred, who is speaking at Bisnow’s SoCal Student Housing event on Dec. 6 in Los Angeles, said student housing has become “a very viable sector nationwide for both ground-up development and an investment property,” reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.

University of California San Diego assistant vice chancellor for housing Mark Cunningham said there is tremendous demand for on-campus housing, primarily because students are priced out of the local rental market. He said there’s a 2,500-person waiting list for graduate student housing alone. UCSD provides housing for 15,000 students, faculty and staff. Cunningham said undergraduate rooms are designed to house two students, but with the shortage of student housing, three students are being jammed into dorm rooms. Pictured above is the North-Transfer student housing project on the UCSD campus.

Meanwhile, San Diego State University is trying to increase the number of students living on campus, according to SDSU associate vice president of real estate Robert Schultz, and is considering requiring sophomores to live on campus, as well as freshmen. He said the move to increase the campus population is not a matter of rental costs, but because living on campus that extra year measurably improves student GPAs.

Schultz said SDSU has entered a public-private partnership with a developer because the project will cost less. Unlike the university, he said, private developers are not subject to the state’s prevailing wage law.

The Quad San Marcos is a private student housing project across the street from the California State University San Marcos campus. The project has maintained 95% occupancy since it opened in 2012, according to developer Gary Levitt, founder of Sea Breeze Properties. He said universities are not building more apartment-style projects, but rather projects with two people to a room and shared kitchen and common areas. Levitt said his company’s arrangement with CSU San Marcos is unique, as the university operates the complex as “affiliated campus housing,” but Sea Breeze retains ownership. Students pay $7,980/academic year to live there. [SDUT]