Post-Covid-19, students have returned to campus in droves and are expected to keep coming, and it's sweet music to developers of purpose-built student housing, which focus on buildings that are near but off campus. Many are working to keep up and planning ahead that numbers will continue. 

A year from now in Fall 2024, more than 28,000 new student housing beds are projected to be available. Of course, the numbers may change due to financing challenges given high interest rates, overall economic uncertainty including the return of student debt and more. But for now, that number reflects a good indication of the expected supply.

At 11 campuses, more than 1,000 beds will be available within a year, according to RealPage, with big-name state schools among them. At the top of the list is the University of Wisconsin at Madison which expects to gain 2,850 beds. That school has one of the nation's highest occupancy rates, so the new beds will ease pent-up demand, the report says. But the beds are also more than they've had before and represent a 50% inventory increase at the school. What that means, the report says, is that "for every two beds that exist off campus in the market today, one more will work through lease up next year."