Speaker: Dr. Nick Revington

Title: The financialization of student housing through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

Synopsis (from Dr. Revington): The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted higher education as international student mobility was disrupted and teaching shifted to virtual formats. These impacts could be expected to affect the private purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) sector, an increasingly mainstream ‘global’ real estate asset class remaking university cities, yet dependent on students’ physical presence. Indeed, in the short term, firms saw share prices plummet and suspended dividend payments. However, as the pandemic wore on, they adopted strategies to sustain the financialization of PBSA through the crisis. Drawing on an analysis of documents produced by real estate consultancies and PBSA operators in Africa, Australia, Europe, and North America, I interrogate these strategies and their implications for university cities. Prevailing trends are likely to amplify uneven development, the privatization of student housing, and urban segregation beyond the pandemic. More generally, the case of PBSA demonstrates the remarkable resilience of financialization to unexpected, external market shocks.

Dr. Nick Revington is an Assistant Professor at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), with a focus on Urban Development, Housing, and Young Adults.