Canada Struggles to House Its International Students

Despite Canada’s education sector reaching great heights and attracting numerous students, a recently conducted popular study suggests that the country still lags behind many of its global counterparts in creating purpose-based student accommodations (PBSAs), leaving student housing in Canada with much to be desired. However, it still remains a fruitful option for investors to cash in.

In recent student housing news, BONARD, a thinktank providing independent data and research for the residential sector, in its article titled “Why Canada’s PBSA sector is a great opportunity for investor,” suggests that creating more PBSAs is a crucial step for Canada to attract more international investors as well as students via student housing. 

Canada set a goal in its 2014 International Education Strategy to host more than 551,405 international students come 2022. The North American nation was able to fulfill that goal within three years of its inception. While that achievement is commendable, it also means that the PBSAs existing in the country reached maximum capacity in a short period of time, leading to many speculating about a student housing crisis. 

The report suggests that while investors are eyeing up the Canadian markets, they are hesitant because of factors such as a lack of research, large portfolios and already existing big players in the market. Martin Vega, BONARD’s real estate business development director says, “They need to have access to information to understand the local specifics,” talking about international investors and their involvement in the Canadian markets “We have more than 22 cities mapped on a regular basis, and we have information about all the players, rents and pipeline directions.”

The lack of PBSA in Canada, coupled with the shortage of affordable housing for international students, can backfire on Canada and its popularity worldwide, creating a negative perception of itself in student housing news. The study monitored twenty-two Canadian cities for its reports and found that these twenty-two hosted 1.29 million students in the year 2021-22. Out of these 1.29 million, 259,217 were international students in Canada. In contrast, there were just 155,692 beds available to house them, leaving the country on the edge of a student housing crisis. “The students are usually the customers, but the clients are the parents, and the parents want to send their children to a place that’s providing a good quality of education - which Canada does - but also a secure and good place for living,” emphasized Varga. 

The study found that the university and the developers had differing goals in mind when it came to creating accommodation for its students in Canada. If the Canadians wish to keep their hegemony when it comes to foreign students in its universities intact, it must strategize to develop more quality PBSA in Canada and promote private student housing to avoid a student housing crisis.

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