Experts are forecasting a cooling-off period for Baton Rouge’s student housing market in 2017, following a years-long boom that has led to a spate of apartment developments throughout the LSU area.
Currently, Baton Rouge is one of the strongest markets in the country for student housing, says LSU Real Estate Research Institute Assistant Director Brian Andrews. There has been a good deal of new construction in recent years, especially in the Burbank Drive corridor.
But that growth, and corresponding high unit prices, are not expected to last, Andrews says. LSU is increasing its presence in the market with student housing at the mixed-use Nicholson Gateway project. That, coupled with an unsustainable amount of construction, will make for some belt-tightening, he says.
“That’s not good news for some of the people that are out there catering to the student market,” Andrews says. “You have a stagnant number of people looking for an increasing number of housing units. The only thing that can happen is for rents to go down.”
