College House
Enhancing Student Housing Analytics Using University and Purpose-Built Housing Data

The student housing sector is a unique segment within the commercial real estate industry, characterized by leasing cycles closely tied to the academic year. Companies engaged in this niche, therefore, require access to data to accurately navigate each market.

Through an innovative web platform and a comprehensive database, College House provides a solution that is as formidable as it is necessary. Its mission centers on three core pillars— providing meaningful data for agile decisionmaking, driving industry-wide data visualization innovation and its wide-ranging data and analytics product solutions.

“Our insights aim to empower all stakeholders. Beyond just aggregating the largest data set in the student-housing industry, we strive to be a resource for all companies in the industry,” says Charlie Matthews, founder and CEO.

Whether an operator, manager, investor, developer, broker, lender or any industry participant, the data College House collects, reports on and analyzes is available and valuable to all stakeholders.

For instance, in response to the increasing demand for enhanced living experiences among students, investors are focusing on reviewing market and property data to identify how they can meet the needs of student populations creating holistic living environments. Properties equipped with fitness centers, communal spaces, study lounges and recreational facilities are gaining popularity. College House helps all understand these trends, allowing for a streamlined user experience that provides university and property data.

This user experience is made possible through a mobileoptimized, web-based platform with enhanced visualization and reporting capabilities. Users can create year-over-year comparisons, assess market performance across different regions and examine property data, including location, amenities and room types. The platform’s comprehensive data allows for information such as student enrollment numbers, mapping of properties surrounding the campus area, and publicly announced new development properties or dormitory changes happening around the campus.

The Database Explorer product offers the underlying data that powers all front-end visualizations. It includes several key data tables designed to thoroughly view the student housing market. The Markets Data Table, for example, delivers dynamic and static KPIs such as total enrollment figures and the number of schools. Detailed information on university locations and bed distributions is found in the Schools Data Table, while the Properties Data Table focuses on property metrics.

The Enrollments Data Table tracks university enrollment figures dating back to 2014, offering deep insights into enrollment trends, and the Plans Data Table and Plan Reports Data Table provide granular floor plan data and KPIs for comprehensive analysis.

“The Database Explorer product offers seamless integration with leading analytical tools such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Snowflake Data Cloud and Tableau Cloud,” says Laura Chapman, Chief Product Officer.

College House provides data analytics to niche college housing industry professionals as they build their own analysis for decisionmaking. Housing professionals need to solve challenges specific to universities, such as pre-leasing for the following academic year, as each year, the properties will turn over as new students enroll, and others graduate. Also, as some universities grow their enrollments year over year, they need to provide enough beds to meet the university’s housing needs.

College House works with property operators, property managers, investors, developers, brokers, and lenders in the real estate industryto deliver timely student university and housing data with visualization insights for data-driven decision-making.

As they continue to build the amount of data to meet the needs of the industry, the reliability and security of data are paramount. College House upholds the highest data security standards, evidenced by its SOC 2 Compliance. To ensure data integrity, it employs robust security measures, including Transport Layer Security 1.2 (TLS) or higher, further reinforced by HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) for enhanced safeguarding. Additionally, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is entrusted with managing the server TLS keys and certificates, facilitating secure data deployment via Application Load Balancers.

Leveraging this robust foundation, College House is now expanding its successful data analytics business to the senior housing sector, under the Senior House brand and introduced their overall umbrella branding, House Analytics in fall 2023. This strategic move capitalizes on the company’s proven expertise in SaaS and real estate, aiming to deliver transformative insights and intelligence within another crucial housing niche market segment. By applying its data-driven strategies to senior housing, House Analytics seeks to replicate its success in student housing and broaden its impact across the real estate industry.