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Europe’s largest student market, still under-provided

Sources: JLL 2026 · Savills 2025 · CBRE 2026 · BONARD 2025

Strong international student growth, combined with minimal public development and stagnated private development, has left Europe’s largest student market structurally undersupplied.

2.88m
Students WS 2025/26; internationals 16.3% of all, 30% of first-years
10.1%
Public PBSA provision (FY2025), falling in nearly every city
95%
Occupancy WS 2025, up from 86% in 2021

Supply

Studierendenwerke added ~13,300 beds against ~1m more students between 2001 and 2023, so public provision has fallen almost everywhere (Savills).
Private stock growth has slowed to 3.8% CAGR for 2022–25 from 12.5% for 2019–22; ~9,600 beds are due over the next three years (Savills, JLL).
JLL expects under-delivery — cancellations and 6–12 month slippage — and CBRE sees little pipeline visible beyond 2026 in most cities.

Demand

411k first-years (+1.7%). Domestic intake dips to 2026 then recovers; international intake has risen steadily since 1999 (KMK, JLL).
Occupancy at 95% (WS 2025, IML) confirms stabilised assets are effectively full.
International students concentrate in cities with expanding universities — the profile of Passau’s catchment.

Rents & opex

Stuttgart €1,082, Berlin €1,042, Hamburg €1,025, Frankfurt €976, Munich €967, Düsseldorf €956, Cologne €750 — a €200–400 premium over shared-flat rooms.
Growth is moderating from 4–6% like-for-like; Düsseldorf +13.6% and Munich −4.2% mark the extremes. CBRE puts all-in rents at €30–55/sqm.
Utilities run at €7.21/sqm (~€140 per room a month), +7.4% CAGR 2020–25, outpacing rent. Metering and heating controls (~7% of opex, ~€233/bed) are the NOI lever.

Investment

Prime NIY 4.30% (JLL), 22–24x NOI; spread to prime PRS 75–85 bps against 120–130 bps in 2021. Yields stable since 2024/25 with slight compression in 2025.
Modern Living €267m in 2025 across 14 deals, more than double 2024 (CBRE). PBSA ~€200m in H1 2026 with ~€400m of asset deals and ~€2bn of portfolios in process (JLL); both expect >€500m in 2026.
BONARD: continental Europe now 44% of European PBSA volume (30% in 2019–20), with Germany among the scaling portfolio markets.
Pipeline to 2030 · % of stock
Berlin18.6%
Munich11.2%
Düsseldorf10.0%
Stuttgart9.4%
Hamburg8.5%
Frankfurt8.2%
Cologne6.0%
Provision gap to 2030 target · pp
Berlin13.2 short
Cologne10.0 short
Munich9.3 short
Düsseldorf9.3 short
Hamburg8.1 short
Frankfurt4.5 over
Stuttgart2.2 over
All-in rent · Big-7, summer 2026
Stuttgart€1,082
Berlin€1,042
Hamburg€1,025
Frankfurt€976
Munich€967
Düsseldorf€956
Cologne€750
Watch points
Operating costs

Ancillary costs are rising faster than rents and sit with the operator under all-inclusive leases. Efficient buildings with metering and heat-pump systems protect NOI — the specification Stonehill builds to.

Under-delivery

Cancellations and slower timelines mean the visible pipeline overstates supply. Consented, funded schemes such as Passau are well placed.

Data caveats

No 2025+ report covers Passau or Innsbruck directly. Frankfurt’s 4.5pp over-provision reflects an unresolved JLL text/chart contradiction, and CBRE, JLL, Savills and BONARD volume series are not directly combinable.

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About Stonehill

Stonehill is a leading developer of purpose built student accommodation and modern living across central and southern Europe.

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€265.9m
Total transaction value across four completed schemes
1,900+
Student rooms delivered
1,360
Rooms in the development pipeline

Stonehill’s capabilities extend from origination through the development phase and into operations and management.

Capital Partners

Long-term investment structures for institutional partners seeking stable, premium PBSA income across Europe.

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Development Activity

Milan, Passau and Padua — 1,364 new rooms under way for the 2028/29 academic year.

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Partners and counterparties
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Professional partners

A small circle of long-standing consultants, contractors and operators.

Design development is outsourced to a limited number of third-party practices with whom Stonehill has built close working relationships over many years. Their experience in student accommodation is carried from mature markets into each new city, while local architects, engineers and advisers ensure every scheme meets precise planning and regulatory requirements.

Stonehill works with London-based architects tp bennett on the design concept stage of each project. Local architectural practices in each market then refine the design and navigate local planning regulations through to consent and delivery.

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Development and financing partners

Stonehill also works with Pegasus Capital Partners, its Vienna development and financing partner; Invel Real Estate, which announced an initial €18 million investment in the Milan and Padua projects in June 2026; and Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich, which provided senior development debt for the Vienna student residence.

Investors and funding counterparties

PATRIZIA, Ardian / Rockfield, AEW, Allianz and M&G Real Estate appear as buyers or funding counterparties on Stonehill projects. See Capital Partners ›
Investment thesis · Mission statement
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Our strengths

Stonehill has acquired a valuable, pan-European overview of student requirements in different markets. The group has a strong development management capability, based on the broad international experience of its construction managers over many decades.

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Institutional purchasers

Headline transactions and counterparties

€265.9m combined headline transaction value
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Capital relationships

Who we work with

Stonehill incorporates different financing and exit strategies for its developments, often utilising its long-standing relationships with senior lenders, JV partners and institutional purchasers to complete and exit its projects.

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First mover

Via Sebastiano Serlio, Bologna

Stonehill was a first mover in the Italian market with the development of the 532 room landmark asset at via Sebastiano Serlio in Bologna. Serving the University of Bologna, it is among the tallest buildings in the city. Stonehill operated the building for a number of years before exiting the project to Ardian / Rockfield in February 2025.
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Sustainability

ESG & carbon neutrality

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With rapidly changing attitudes towards achieving zero carbon impact, Stonehill consistently delivers projects with high energy efficiency and minimal embedded and operational carbon emissions. It also makes commercial sense to minimise overhead costs and optimise the net operating income, as well as contribute to long-term decarbonisation.

Stonehill deploys a wide range of active and passive carbon saving technologies. These include high levels of insulation, roof mounted PV panels and smart building monitoring systems. In all of its developments where technical conditions allow, Stonehill deploys heat pump technology – either GSHP or ASHP systems, providing both winter heating and summer cooling.

Stonehill aims to achieve LEED Gold Certification for all its projects, whenever possible.

In the German market, Stonehill aims to build to Effizienzhaus 40 standard to reduce environmental impact.

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Press articles, partner announcements and project features

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Matthew Cartisser · Founder

Decades of experience across different European commercial real estate asset classes that built Stonehill.

Stonehill was founded by Matthew Cartisser, a Cambridge law graduate who has been involved in the property sector for most of his professional life. One of the first developers to enter the Polish real estate market in the early 1990s, he pioneered one of the nation’s first business parks in Warsaw before turning his focus to student accommodation and contemporary living.

Drawing on the maturing UK market for student housing, Matthew led Stonehill’s expansion across Europe — from Vienna’s Dresdnerstrasse residences, among the first modern PBSA schemes in Austria, to landmark projects in Bologna and Turin, and a growing pipeline in Milan, Padua and Passau.

37
Schemes delivered across seven countries
6.6m
sq ft of retail, office and living space
Poland

Matthew was one of the first Western developers to enter Poland after 1989, pioneering Wiśniowy Business Park in Warsaw — six office buildings and one of the nation’s first business parks — and in Katowice he set up the development of Silesia City Center, a 951,500 sq ft shopping centre built on a former coal-mine site that became one of the largest retail destinations in the country.

Milestones
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