This year's report, published in the July/August issue of Student Housing Business, showed some surprising results
After nearly a decade of growth that paralleled the transition of student housing from niche darling to multifamily mainstay, industry compensation experienced a year-over-year decline from 2018-2019, falling back to nearly 2017 levels. Despite several previous years of trending flat, the 2019 dip in compensation might come as a surprise to those who saw market conditions last year mirroring those of 2018; however, there were warning signs that the long-predicted student housing downturn was beginning, and some of those might be reflected in the survey's findings.
Investment professionals as a class saw the greatest drop in the survey (a 5.7 percent decrease in total compensation) during a year in which both capital inflow and transaction volume were down significantly from 2018. And not only was last year's transaction volume lower, but the scale of those transactions had also shifted from large portfolio sales to single-asset and small-portfolio deals. Large-scale ownership transitions are one of the primary drivers of employment changes in the industry, particularly in property operations. This might account for why management professionals also experienced a surprising decrease (-5.0 percent).
You can download a full copy of the survey at the link below:
2020 Student Housing Compensation Survey
