Real Estate Development Firm — University District Student Housing

A mid-market property developer was sitting on a retrofit opportunity in a university district and needed to know whether student housing was the right move — and if so, what kind would actually pencil out.

The gap wasn’t market data. It was the layer underneath: why students choose one building over another, what makes them renew, what they’ll actually pay more for versus what sounds good until move-in day. Highdive ran the full research stack to answer both sides of the question.

On the market side: existing housing demand surveys, university enrollment and demographic trends, occupancy and pricing analysis across on-campus and off-campus competitors, construction cost benchmarks, revenue projections, break-even modeling, and ROI analysis. On the consumer side: qualitative interviews and a pulse survey with students to map the actual housing decision process — how they searched, what they weighted, where current options frustrated them, and what they’d pay a premium for if it existed. University facilities staff were interviewed as a third input, covering planned capacity changes and where institutional supply was likely to fall short.

The two tracks ran in parallel and were cross-referenced throughout — every market finding tested against what students actually said, every consumer insight checked against whether the numbers supported acting on it.

Recommendations came out the other end covering housing type, unit configuration, amenities, pricing strategy, and competitive positioning — specific enough to inform design decisions, not just a go/no-go. The developer got a clear, research-grounded answer to the original question with the financial analysis to back it up.