What’s Next for Student Housing?

Student Housing: Rethinking Demand, Design & Viability in a Shifting Market

International student slowdowns, construction cost surges, and shifting affordability trends—2024-25 has posed some of the toughest questions yet for the PBSA sector. In a landscape defined by rising uncertainty, developers and operators are being forced to rethink traditional models and build for a very different student profile.

In this episode of the Room to Grow podcast, industry experts Philip Hillman and David Tymms dive into the findings from the QX Global Group & JLL report Where Next for Student Housing?—offering insights into changing demand dynamics, evolving student behaviours, and what viability now means for the sector.

What’s the podcast about

Listen to the full episode to gain deeper insight into:

• The decline in international student numbers—and what’s driving it
• Changing spending power and expectations of both domestic and international students
• The rise of the part-time commuter student
• Why affordability is now the biggest pressure point for developers
• Design & viability challenges shaping the next wave of PBSA
• The growing role of university partnerships—and their limits
• How operators are rethinking services, staffing and hospitality
• Why demand still exists—but must be read through a new lens

About our guests

Philip Hillman is a Senior Consultant at QX and one of the first advisors to the UK’s Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) sector in the early 1990s. With over 35 years in real estate, he was formerly Chairman of Alternative Real Estate and Living Capital Markets at JLL, where he led high-profile transactions that helped shape the sector. A regular speaker at Living sector conferences, Philip is a strong advocate for creating dynamic, community-driven housing models.

David Tymms is a Strategic Advisor to the Board at QX Global Group with over 30 years of leadership in student accommodation. He formerly served as COO at iQ Student Accommodation, where he helped scale the business and played a key role in its £4.7B acquisition by Blackstone. Prior to that, he was Director of Residential Services at LSE, leading major innovations in university housing. David brings deep expertise across both public and private PBSA, with a focus on strategic growth and operational excellence.