Opened in 2021, the Waverley is Fitzrovia's first student-focused property next to the University of Toronto’s downtown campus. Fitzrovia plans to brand all its student buildings under the Waverley name.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
A challenging rite of university life – finding a place to live near campus – is about to get easier, as developer Fitzrovia Real Estate Inc. launches a national student-housing build-out.
Fitzrovia, one of the country’s largest rental-apartment owners, will break ground on student-focused apartments in multiple Ontario cities, including London, Kingston, Guelph and Toronto, in coming months, and is working on a project in Kitchener-Waterloo. Next year, the company plans to launch developments near campuses in Western Canada. Toronto-based Fitzrovia runs a $9-billion apartment portfolio.
Fitzrovia’s move into student housing is part of a trend toward increased institutional real estate investment in a domestic market that is fragmented and locally owned. In the United States and Europe, asset managers such as Blackstone Inc., Brookfield Corp. and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board have become the dominant landlords for university students over the past two decades.
“There is growing student demand for professionally run rental housing with the curated amenities and lifestyle services we offer in all our buildings,” Fitzrovia founder and chief executive officer Adrian Rocca said in an interview. He said the federal government’s 2024 decision to cut international student visas has had limited impact on demand for university housing.
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Last year, the federal government cut permits for international students by 35 per cent to approximately 360,000, and imposed a second 10-per-cent reduction this year. The reductions triggered a significant drop in community college enrolment, but university applications continue to rise.
In Ontario, first-year applications from students living in the province rose by 34,314 in 2024 compared with the previous year, while international and out-of-province applications dropped by 13,340, according to data from the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre. For the foreseeable future, Mr. Rocca said, demand for student housing near universities will outstrip supply.
Over the next six years, consultants at Ernst & Young Global Ltd. forecast rising enrolment at Canadian universities will mean 400,000 additional beds will be needed in purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA).
In 2023, the schools only had enough on-campus space for 16 per cent of students. Without significant investment in PBSA, E&Y predicted that by 2031, 1.5 million students will be competing for just 170,000 PBSA beds in Canada’s 20 largest university markets.
“Institutions must embrace innovative housing solutions to adapt to market dynamics,” Edward Ng, an E&Y partner, said in a recent report. “Collaboration with public and private partners is essential to create affordable housing options.”
Fitzrovia CEO Adrian Rocca says there is demand for rental housing that offers the 'curated amenities and lifestyle services' the developer offers. The Waverley's amenities include a rooftop pool, gym, co-working space, coffee bar and online medical consulting service.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
In 2021, Fitzrovia opened its first student-focused property next to the University of Toronto’s downtown campus. The 166-unit building is called the Waverley. It features amenities such as a rooftop pool, large gym, co-working space, coffee bar and online medical consulting service, a service approach the company developed at buildings with far higher rent.
Fitzrovia plans to brand all of its student buildings under the Waverley banner. The company expects to spend between $150-million and $200-million on each project. Mr. Rocca said each Waverley building will be designed with architectural character, using bold colours and diverse building materials.
In London, Fitzrovia is building Waverley Western, a 35-storey tower with 512 units, with a planned move-in date of 2029. It is 1.6 kilometres from the Western campus.
Waverley Queen’s consists of two 10-storey buildings with 508 units on historic Princess Street, 700 metres from the campus in downtown Kingston. Students are expected to move in by fall 2028. In Toronto, Fitzrovia is building a second student-focused apartment near the Toronto Metropolitan University campus downtown.
Fitzrovia has plans for student-focused housing near Western University, Queens University, Toronto Metropolitan University and the University of Guelph.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
In April, Guelph’s city council changed zoning laws to increase downtown density in what historically was one of the country’s most supply-constrained student markets. As a result, Fitzrovia plans a 24-storey, 382-unit building that is 1.6 kilometres from the University of Guelph.
Building student housing comes with the cost risks associated with any large real estate project. E&Y’s study showed that the hard costs of building PBSA are increasing at up to 20 per cent annually, a level of uncertainty that discourages universities and many institutional investors from launching projects.
Rent in privately owned student apartments is comparable with the cost of university-run residences, the E&Y study found. The consultants compared rates in eight Canadian cities with universities and found the average monthly rent in PBSA ranged from a low of $700 in Winnipeg to a high of $1,300 in Edmonton, with the Greater Toronto Area at $1,150 and Vancouver at $1,250.
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Fitzrovia’s expansion into student housing is part of the company’s strategy to make rental living a more attractive option and part of the solution to the country’s housing shortage. Mr. Rocca said: “Our goal is to remove any stigma around renting, by offering an exceptional living experience.”
Mr. Rocca developed properties in Europe for Apollo Global Management Inc., which has US$512-billion of assets under management, prior to founding Fitzrovia in 2017. In regions such as Germany, he said, the majority of citizens go through their entire lives as renters. Fitzrovia’s plan is to use a positive rental experience in university as the opening to a lifelong link to tenants.