Insights from Turner: It Happened: “THE Shift” in the Student Housing Renter

J Turner Research, in partnership with Multifamily Executive, just released its ranking of the top student companies as determined by ORA. While some of the same companies rose to the top in this year’s ranking as compared to previous years, what they had to do to meet renter demand has changed drastically. In fact, we are seeing what we are deeming “THE shift” in the student renter, where what has worked the last few years to keep students happy will no longer work with the student renter of the 2025-2026 school year.

What is “THE Shift?”

“THE Shift” in student housing is that student renters are finally starting to prioritize service over amenities. While this has been an ever-growing trend coming out of COVID in conventional housing, the student trend was very different. In conventional housing, we saw offerings like a nice gym or pool becoming more of an expectation, resulting in satisfaction shifting to being driven by the relationship with the staff. When describing their living experience in reviews (which, I remind you are non-prompted), renters began talking less about how great the common areas are and much more about whether the staff shows empathy, communicates clearly, and is transparent with fees. We chalked this up to the Amazon Effect. The Amazon Effect theorizes that the immediacy of services like Amazon have increased the service expectation consumers have with the other businesses they interact with.

Meanwhile, Gen Z students occupying student housing from 2021 to 2024 still seemed impressionable by the bells and whistles apartment communities had. They were actually talking LESS about Customer Service and MORE about Amenities (see table below).

Our theory of this trend was that Gen Zs living in student housing post the peak of COVID were especially impressionable by spaces that promoted community. They had just spent time in high school isolated and without a lot of the normal communal activities many of us millennials got to enjoy (like school dances). They were scientifically starving for in-person social interaction.

Nature Neuroscience reported that isolation like what was experienced during COVID acts like hunger, where people actually crave social interaction. This manifested itself in their perception of housing.

The Guardian detailed that “87% [of students] feel the type of accommodation they chose at university affected their feelings of isolation.”

Thus, it is no wonder that this era of student renter would not only choose a place with attractive amenities, but they would also go out of their way to make the condition and availability of those common spaces a primary source of their satisfaction. As we have reported on forever, sense of community drives renewals and overall satisfaction (research report here).

But for whatever reason (we believe it is further distance from COVID in the youths’ impressionable years), “THE Shift” has happened – it is NOW more about a feeling of belonging cultivated by the staff and less about the physical spaces bringing students together.

The Here and Now

Customer Service and Communication are back to being at the forefront of driving resident satisfaction in student housing. Customer Service was mentioned positively in 56% of student reviews in 2025, an 18% increase over 2024 and the highest number on record. Communication also reached record highs, increasing in frequency by 16% year-over-year. Meanwhile, the frequency of Amenities went off a cliff:

The likelihood of seeing a compliment about Amenities went from 25% in 2024 to just 14% in 2025, a 42% decrease. 

The same trend existed within complaints. Customer Service and Communication complaints rose by 46% and 42%, respectively. Amenities complaints went down by 18%.

Put two and two together and you see the data is not about what we are delivering onsite and more about who is living there and what they are now expecting.

If you are still skeptical, I would call your attention to the Financial category which looks at how transparently and clearly fees are being laid out onsite in comparison to the Condition of the Unit category which looks at the quality of the individual units. Complaints in Financial were up a whopping 59% while compliments about the Condition of the Unit were down 28% in 2025.

You can no longer make students happy with flash – it has shifted to be all about service.

Wrapping Up: 4 Other Student Housing Trends

1. Student Housing review sentiment got more negative last year and continues to be largely more pessimistic than conventional. For the sixth year in a row, we saw more complaints and less compliments amongst student properties than the year before. It is now a 50% split between positive and negative comments in student housing. In contrast, conventional housing is 61% positive to 39% negative. 
   
2. The Apex Threats are still an important part of student housing. In addition to the trend we noted with Financial complaints rising, complaints related to both Pests (34%) and Security (22%) rose year-over-year. It is more common to find a complaint about all three topics at a student housing property than a conventional property, and all three are likely to deter Gen Z renters according to our research. 
   
3. Student “Turn” is the most important touch point in student housing. The quality of move-in appears as a topic within student housing reviews more than twice as often as conventional properties. The unfortunate part is that it is an expectation. In fact, Move-in Quality drove 18.9% of the negative reviews produced in 2025 for student properties, but was only complimented in 3.55% of the positive reviews. This is important because seeing this topic being discussed negatively online is a top five deterrent to renters. The expectation is to deliver on Move-in Quality; making it a major operational priority is necessary to protect your online reputation and keep occupancy high.
   
4. Maintenance is underutilized for reputation success in student housing. Only 16.18% of student housing’s 4- and 5-star reviews compliment Maintenance Service, whereas conventional housing sees compliments in 25.93% of their positive reviews. Greater training in asking for reviews amongst maintenance technicians could produce more online success for student properties seeking to move up in next year’s ranking.

ABOUT THIS BLOG:

The insights in this blog came from utilizing J Turner Research’s text categorization tool, Einstein. Einstein uses Thought Analysis, a proprietary AI software, to objectively show you your operational strengths and weaknesses based on anything anyone has ever said about you online in reviews. What is being said is incredibly valuable because it is essentially the "why" behind your scores. Reviews are unprompted descriptions of why a resident is satisfied (left a high star rating) or dissatisfied (left a low star rating). This means that what is being complimented and complained about can be seen by owners and operators as drivers of satisfaction/dissatisfaction.