According to the 2025 European Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) Investment Barometer by The Class Foundation and Savills, involving investors and operators with portfolios totalling over 136,000 beds across Europe, with an asset value of approximately €18.8 billion, the student housing sector is poised for significant growth.
“Savills Survey found that PBSA rose to the top of the list of most sought-after Living sector for investors, surpassing multifamily for the first time. When investors were asked about their future allocations within the Living sectors, 62 percent of them said they were targeting the sector. Respondents expect to increase the number of beds in their portfolios by 72 percent over the next two to five years, deploying a further €20 billion,“ says David Sajner, Investment Director at Savills.
This would expand the total portfolios of student housing investors and operators to more than 234,000 beds. Despite this ambition and the increased focus on the sector from investors, there remains a substantial undersupply of beds across Europe. If all these planned beds were delivered, the average European provision rate would only increase to 18 percent from 14 percent today, assuming student numbers remain the same.
Demand for student housing in Prague significantly exceeds supply
“Prague is also seeing growing investor interest in private student housing. Among the most prominent private student residences in the city are The FIZZ, Comenius, Zeitraum Student Housing, DC Rezidence, Bro-Coli, Student House Botič, Rooms 5 and Campus Park,“ adds David Sajner.
According to Savills’ study from 2024, demand for student accommodation in Prague has remained consistently high over the long term. However, the supply of new accommodation capacity is not growing fast enough to meet this demand. The city recorded only 29,450 student beds, which is far from sufficient to meet the level of unmet demand.
Investment in the student housing sector in Prague, therefore, represents an attractive opportunity. It is underpinned by stable fundamentals, including consistent and growing demand, a shortage of available beds, and the fact that the majority of students cannot afford to rent their own apartment outside purpose-built student accommodation.
Approximately 90 percent of the PBSA capacity is owned by either private or public universities. Although universities are gradually refurbishing and modernising their dormitories, these projects are typically slow-moving and often only partial. The standard of living in these dormitories is incomparable to rooms in private PBSA. In 2024, Prague had 22 privately owned student residences with a total capacity of nearly 3,000 beds. Including existing co-living projects, which are also very popular among students, this number would increase to approximately 3,800 beds.
Savills’ 2024 study further shows that around 75,000 university students in Prague seek accommodation each academic year. A comparison of supply and demand clearly demonstrates that the demand for student housing significantly exceeds available capacity. This unmet demand subsequently puts pressure on the traditional residential rental market.
