Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic affected the lives of many. As schools and businesses were shut down, fully functional, smart, and connected living spaces became a necessity rather than an amenity. As our worlds slowly open back up, the necessity still remains the same. For colleges, universities, and student housing operators, creating safer and smarter communities that improve the health and well-being of their residents should be a top priority. Here are some of the top student housing technologies that operators can implement at their properties:
Connectivity + Property-Wide = No-Brainer
The majority of students enrolled in a college or university are Generation Z – the cohort of people born in the mid-to-late 1990s to the early 2010s. Gen Z represents 68 million prospective renters, and are considered “digital natives,” who have little to no memory of the world as it existed before smartphones. To no surprise, 78% of current students rank WiFi as the most important amenity when choosing a place to live. You can offer the high-quality student housing experience these renters want by enabling property-wide, high-speed connectivity that a resident can connect to as soon as they receive their keys (or code, we’ll cover that next).
IoT That Doesn’t Require a Degree
It’s not enough to just provide smart technology – it has to be simple. No one wants to fumble through multiple apps just to live in their apartment comfortably. As such, it’s important that residents can access and control their apartments with ease. Enter: Internet of Things. Give them the control they desire with the ability to lock and unlock their door, access community spaces, and control smart devices right from their phone on a single app.
An A+ Market
The student housing market maintains demand through volatile periods. With over 8.6 million students in the U.S. needing housing, we can assume a healthy growth period in the coming months before the fall semester. As the job market took a plunge during the pandemic last year, enrollment rates are rising quickly – which begs the question, what smart technologies can you implement to appeal to the smartest students?
