Yardi Matrix: Student housing preleasing following a familiar pattern

Yardi Matrix reports that student housing preleasing at 200 tracked schools reached 71.6% in April 2026, growing 7.6% month-over-month but trailing prior-year rates due to competition from new supply and weakness in the conventional multifamily sector. Year-over-year rent growth accelerated to 1.2% in April, suggesting operators are gaining pricing confidence ahead of summer leasing. The report notes preleasing performance was 200 basis points above March estimates but lagged April 2022-2024 rates.