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Student accommodation · Sector in build

Student accommodation feasibility, with the academic year in the model.

Beds, rent per bed, occupancy, academic-year seasonality and stabilised NOI. Popurise is live for residential today and is expanding into student accommodation next.

Register interest View residential model

Why this sector

Stop modelling student accommodation like apartments.

Student accommodation feasibility lives on beds, rent per bed and academic-year occupancy. Spreadsheets that treat beds as residential units miss what decides the deal.

The old way
Modelled like apartments.

Beds treated as units. Seasonality ignored. Operating costs absorbed into a margin.

With Popurise
Modelled like a PBSA.

Beds, rent per bed, academic occupancy curve and opex connected to stabilised NOI.

Student is a held PBSA, not a sell-down.Beds, rent, occupancy and stabilised yield in one workspace.
  • 01

    Beds as a real input.

    Bed count drives rent and value, not GFA.

  • 02

    Rent per bed.

    Standard pricing convention in PBSA. The model is built around it.

  • 03

    Academic-year seasonality.

    Occupancy varies through the year, modelled by month.

  • 04

    Operating costs front and centre.

    Management, maintenance, utilities and reserve as inputs.

  • 05

    Stabilised NOI at the top.

    Gross income net of vacancy, opex and reserve.

  • 06

    Hold IRR not just margin.

    Equity IRR across construction, lease-up and exit.

The spreadsheet problem

Stop letting the spreadsheet flatten the year.

Student accommodation lives on the academic calendar. Spreadsheets that flatten the year to one occupancy number miss the timing that decides the deal.

  • 01Rent quoted per unitRent per bed by room type
  • 02Occupancy flat across the yearAcademic-year seasonality by month
  • 03Operating costs absorbedReal input categories
  • 04Stabilised NOI hand-reconciledStabilised NOI live in outputs
  • 05Utilities buried in opexUtilities as a separate input
  • 06Hold IRR ignoredEquity IRR across construction and exit
  • 07Final_v7 becomes the systemOne live project, one scenario set

The difference

Run student accommodation feasibilities faster.

Spreadsheets flatten the academic year. Residential templates miss the rent per bed convention. Popurise is being built around the inputs that decide a PBSA deal.

What you get
Excel workbookBuild it yourself
Spreadsheet templateOff the shelf
Legacy softwareTrained user tool
PopuriseBuilt around the deal
Best fit
Analyst-built PBSA models
Residential templates
Trained users
Student accommodation feasibility
Rent basis
Per unit
Per unit
Available, heavy
Per bed
Occupancy
Flat across the year
Flat across the year
Process-heavy
Academic-year curve
Operating costs
Absorbed
Flat margin
Heavy to configure
Real input categories
Stabilised NOI
Hand-reconciled
Manual
Available with effort
Live output
Hold IRR
Not modelled
Limited
Heavy
Across construction and exit
Scenario testing
Copy files
Manual
Heavy
Side by side
Version control
File chaos
File chaos with formatting
Better, but heavier
One live project

Get to the answer faster, without spreadsheet mess or software bloat.

Register interest

How it works

Three steps to a faster student accommodation decision.

Model the asset, compare occupancy cases and decide whether the beds are worth bidding.

Step 01

Model the deal

Set the site, beds, rent per bed, academic-year occupancy and exit yield in one workspace.

Step 02

Compare the cases

Test slow, base and fast lease-up on occupancy and rent without copying files.

Step 03

Make the call

See yield on cost, stabilised NOI and hold IRR. Decide what gets the next round.

What the model handles

A student accommodation model, not a renamed apartment build.

The Popurise student accommodation model is being scoped around beds, rent per bed, academic-year occupancy and exit yield, for Australian developers and operators.

01

Site and beds

Site areaGFABedsRoom mixCommon area

02

Land and acquisition

Land costStamp dutyAcquisitionSettlement

03

Build costs

StructureFit-outFF&EAmenityContingency

04

Rent and occupancy

Rent per bedRoom typesAcademic occupancySummer

05

Opex and reserve

ManagementMaintenanceUtilitiesMarketingReserve

06

Finance and exit

LVRInterestCap rateExit value

07

Programme

AcquisitionConstructionFirst intakeStabilisation

Popurise model

Inputs stay connected. Change the deal, see the answer move.

Output · PlannedDriven by sector-specific assumptions

Returns

Yield on cost5.8%
Stabilised NOI$8.4M
Exit value$148.0M
Rent per bed$348/wk
Stabilised occupancy94%
Hold IRR13.4%
Peak debt$94.0M
Peak equity$52.0M

  1. Development directors

    Decide which PBSA sites deserve a real bid.

  2. Acquisition teams

    Screen sites against a target stabilised yield.

  3. Operators

    Sanity-check rent per bed, occupancy and opex assumptions.

  4. Asset managers

    Stress-test exit cap rate and stabilised NOI.

  5. Funds and investors

    Sanity-check stabilised value against the cost stack.

Why it exists

A better way to run student accommodation feasibility.

Popurise is being built around the inputs that decide a PBSA deal: beds, rent per bed, academic-year occupancy and exit yield, in one workspace.

Built for student accommodation

Model beds, rent per bed, academic-year occupancy, opex and exit yield in one workspace designed around stabilised value.

Made for faster site screening

Use Popurise to test whether a PBSA site is worth bidding before the deeper bid model is built.

Clearer than spreadsheet files

Keep occupancy scenarios, opex and cashflows together so the stabilised answer is easy to review.

Popurise helps PBSA teams replace fragile workbooks with a cleaner browser-based workspace for student accommodation feasibility and stabilised yield review.

Questions

Student accommodation feasibility, answered.

Straight answers on how Popurise will handle student accommodation feasibility for Australian developers and operators.

Is the student accommodation model live today?

Not yet. Popurise is live for residential development feasibility. Student accommodation is a future sector being scoped on the same platform.

How is rent modelled?

Rent per bed by room type, with summer rates and short-stay overlays. Total revenue is derived from bed count and weekly rate.

How is occupancy modelled?

Academic-year occupancy curve by month, with separate summer occupancy. Stabilised annual occupancy falls out of the curve.

How are operating costs handled?

Management, maintenance, utilities, marketing and reserve as separate inputs. Utilities are split out because of their scale in PBSA.

What is the exit treatment?

Stabilised NOI capitalised at an exit yield, less sale costs. Sensitivity bands on yield are part of the scope.

Will it support direct-let and nominations?

Yes. Direct-let to students and nominations agreements with universities are being scoped as separate revenue structures.

How do I register interest?

Use the Register interest button. Tell us how your team currently models student accommodation and what would help.

Want to shape student accommodation feasibility in Popurise?

Tell us how your team models student accommodation today. We are building this with the developers and operators who will use it.

Register interest View residential model