Student Housing Business is the voice of the student housing industry.
Issue link: https://studenthousingbusiness.epubxp.com/i/564824
MARKET PROFILE: NORMAN, OK STUDENT HOUSING BUSINESS .COM JULY/AUGUST 2015 69 has had to increase the number of bikes it owns and maintains. "Bike seat covers and pedome- ters promote our location," says Fulton, in efect creating a truly mobile marketing efort. Thanks to a recently updated computer lab and clubhouse, as well as a ftness center that is currently under renovation, the Reserve on Stinson has a fair chance at leasing against newer communities. Axiometrics' report discovered the approximately 40 percent of of-campus beds were delivered during just the past three years. With more than 2,000 beds com- ing on line in the past two years, Fulton believes the market is over- supplied. He says that despite the growth, "Our communities are performing fairly well." Fred Pierce, president and CEO of Pierce Education Properties (PEP), agrees with Fulton's state- ment about Norman's oversupply. "Frankly, the market is overbuilt and needs time to absorb the new inventory that's been introduced this year," he says. PEP's own asset in Norman, Crimson Park, which was pur- chased in 2009 from a non-student housing company, was behind this year in its pre-leasing goals at the time this article was writ- ten. According to Pierce, the fact that the Aspen Heights Norman project was 100 percent pre-leased before delivery has put a damper on leasing for other communities in the market, and as a result, Crimson Park has begun incentiv- izing leasing by ofering gift cards or lease specials to prospective tenants. According to data provided by Colliers International's Student Housing Group, the average pre- lease rate for the academic year 2015-2016 in July is at 66 percent. The report also found that stabi- lized occupancy in the Norman market was just over 90 percent for academic year 2014-2015 and has now dipped below 90 per- cent while approaching the end of this year's lease period before academic period 2015-2016. Axiometrics' tracking has found that, as of June 2015, of-campus properties were nearly 77 per- cent leased for fall 2015, below the national average of 82 percent. Annual efective rental growth is relatively fat, as well, at 0.6 per- cent, compared to the national fg- ure of 2 percent. For PEPs part, the compa- ny's reluctance to take on more assets in the market is not nec- essarily due to its oversupply. "More universities are targeting stable enrollments and learning who they are and want to be," he says. "They've decided to man- age enrollment and admissions to maintain equilibrium, not nec- essarily to grow for the sake of growth. "OU fts in that context," says Pierce. "They are stable by design." SHB F o r i n f o r m a t i o n re g a rd i n g o u r e x t e n s i v e l i n e o f s u s t a i n a b l e v i n y l f l o o r i n g , p l e a s e c a l l 8 0 0 - 2 7 5 - 7 9 4 3 o r v i s i t u s o n l i n e a t w w w. e a r t h w e r k s . c o m F E E L S L I K E H O M E . W E A R S L I K E I R O N . Warm and inviting for them – durable for you. There's a difference in LVT that truly performs at both levels. With over three decades of innovative designs and manufacturing technology, we're pioneers in LVT fashion flooring for a variety of demanding environments. Flooring that can take traffic and make turnarounds easy. That's tried and true LVT experience you can trust. EarthWerks ® . SOME OFFER LVT – WE ARE LVT ™ RIED & TRUE