The student housing market today is unlike anything we have ever seen. New student housing apartments are being built with more and more amenities to tailor to the needs and wants of today’s student generation.
A student housing apartment in St Louis will offer students hot Starbucks coffee 24 hours a day. Others are offering yoga studios, lazy rivers, tanning centers, rock climbing gyms and other high-end amenities.
At a minimum, most student apartments offer free super fast Wifi, furnished units, and utilities which are included.
18-24 year olds make up about 10% of the US adult population and this is expected to continue to grow.
Student enrollment is also continuing to grow.
With this continued growth in student housing and strong demand for more and more high-tech and high-end amenities, the market will soon begin offering home automation in every student housing unit for a variety of reasons.
Significant Energy Cost Savings for Ownership
– Since the owners are paying the utility bills on a monthly basis, there is a large opportunity to save millions a year on making the thermostats more efficient.
Existing WiFi Infrastructure
– Since most student housing communities already have community wifi, home automation and energy control systems can be deployed faster and will always be on, even if the units are vacant.
Access Control
– Keys are constantly lost by students which means expenses increase for the owners when they need to continuously change out the locks. With smart locks, the phone becomes the key and owners never have to replace the locks again.
Security
– Students want to feel secure in these buildings and have the piece of mind of knowing if they forgot to lock the door or if a window has been opened. With home automation technologies they can receive notifications when something is out of the ordinary in their unit.
Vacant unit Management
– With summer months where students go home and the high unit churn as students graduate, empty vacant units are expensive to maintain. There are additional utility costs when lights are left on or the temp is set to low because the painter wants stay cool. With automation, these costs can be controlled with automatic rule logic.
Mobile Maintenance Management
– Top maintenance requests range from light bulbs going out, batteries in the smoke detectors beeping, plumbing issues and water leaks. With automation, maintenance requests can automatically be generated when batteries are low, lights are out or moisture is sensed in a unit, saving hours of time for the on-staff team.
Students are Demanding It
– Over 78% of all 12-24 year olds in the US have a smart phone.
– Students use their smart phone for everything. Social. Banking. Communication. Music. Now, they are demanding to control locks, lights and thermostats with their phone.
