There are only 4,500 beds in private student halls

According to a report prepared by Metropolitan Investment, this is not enough. The majority of them are the property of individual natural or legal persons. 36 more facilities are owned by non-public higher education institutions. However, the number of public student halls is by far the highest: around 450 (according to 2010-2015 data). Nearly 101,000 people were accommodated in student halls in Poland in 2016. However, the number of places decreases due to the decommissioning of some of the older facilities and the modernization and related transformation of rooms for 3-4 persons into ones for 1-2 persons. According to the authors of the report, there is a significant shortage of beds in student halls on the market. Only one in ten of the 1.35 mln students in Poland can count on student hall accommodation. Private student halls usually have a higher standard: 1-2 bed apartments with their own kitchen and bathroom, moreover, the building offers Wi-Fi, gyms, laundry rooms and parking spaces for cars and bicycles. They are built to a large extent for foreign students, especially from Western Europe and Asia. “The standard of public student halls is usually unacceptable for them” explains Małgorzata Bonikowska, PhD, president of the Thinktank dialogue and analysis centre.

The number of foreign students in Poland has been constantly growing. It increased by 1,445 percent from 1990 to 2016, from 4,000 to 65,000 (of which 38 pct are mainly students from Western Europe and Asia, and 62 pct are Ukrainians and Belarusians). If the pace is maintained, about 90,000-120,000 people from abroad might be studying in Poland in 2020,” says Rafał Kroczak, director of analyzes at Metropolitan Investment. As pointed out by Wioleta Wojtczak, head of the Savills research department, the market of private student halls in Poland is at a very early stage of development, however, there is a lot of interest not only among students but also investors. “In 2016, the world's investment volume in this sector amounted to a record amount of USD 16.4 bln, which was the highest result in the history of this market,” comments Wioleta Wojtczak.

In Great Britain, rates of return in the best locations remained at 4.5-5 pct in the academic year 2016/2017 while in the least attractive ones they amounted to app. 8-10 pct. In Poland, Metropolitan Investment guarantees a rate of return of 7 pct per annum and an additional 50 pct. from the surplus in the case the value exceeds this limit to private investors wishing to invest in apartments located in the student halls built by the developer.