Investors Plan to Grow Europe's Student Housing Stock 93% — But Only in a Few Countries

On 9 November 2026, the real estate firm Savills and the non-profit The Class Foundation published the fourth edition of their European Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) Investment Barometer, a survey of 19 investors and operators whose combined portfolios hold more than 107,000 beds across Europe, worth roughly €18.1 billion. The respondents told Savills and The Class Foundation they plan to grow their bed stock by 93% over the next two to five years, adding roughly 99,200 beds and pushing their combined holdings past 205,000.

Where the growth is planned

That growth is not spread evenly. According to the Savills and Class Foundation 2026 barometer, Spain drew the largest share of investor interest at 15%, followed by Italy and the United Kingdom at 13% each, Germany at 11%, and France and Portugal at 8% apiece. The UK's rise is notable: the report states the country moved up from a joint-sixth ranking in the 2025 survey. Separately, Savills found that Southern Europe accounted for 27% of total European PBSA investment in the first nine months of 2026, which the firm describes as the highest share on record for the region.

The Netherlands moved the other way. Investor interest there fell from 11% of respondents in the 2024 edition of the barometer to 3% in 2025 and 4% in 2026. Savills and The Class Foundation attribute the drop to uncertainty created by earlier Dutch government plans to cut international student numbers and reduce the number of English-taught programmes. The barometer notes that a more recent announcement dropping the compulsory assessment of English-taught programmes could help bring investors back, though this year's figures do not yet reflect that shift.

A shortfall that growth plans won't close

Even if every respondent's expansion plan is delivered, it would not come close to closing the gap the same report describes. Savills puts Europe's overall PBSA shortfall at 3.1 million beds, with an average provision rate — the share of students who can be housed in purpose-built student accommodation — of just 13% across the continent. Belgium's provision rate is put at 3%, among the lowest cited in the report. The 99,200 additional beds planned by this year's 19 respondents represent a small fraction of that shortfall, and the barometer itself notes that only around 19,000 beds were delivered by these same respondents over the past two years, well below the pace implied by their stated five-year targets.

For students, the practical effect is that new purpose-built supply will keep concentrating in a handful of markets — Spain, Italy, the UK, Germany — while the shortage persists almost everywhere else, including in countries with low current provision such as Belgium. Housing affordability was named a concern by 89% of the investors and operators Savills and The Class Foundation surveyed, and the report frames the industry's central tension as balancing calls for more affordable beds against the rising cost of building new schemes.

Financing conditions and regulation

Interest-rate movements topped investors' list of concerns for 2026, cited by 90% of respondents, up from 67% in the 2025 edition. Regulatory concern eased by comparison, falling to 58% of respondents from 89% the previous year. Construction and site costs were rated "very important" to site-selection decisions by 63% of respondents, and the share reporting difficulty acquiring land fell to 53%, down from an average of 77% across the three previous editions of the barometer.

The survey also points to a broadening pool of capital. Savills found that nearly 60% of respondents expect European cross-border investment in student housing to increase over the next two to five years, with cross-border capital already accounting for €1.3 billion, or 68%, of this year's cross-border total. Beyond Europe, 63% of respondents expect investment from the Asia-Pacific region to increase, against 47% who expect more capital from North America — a sign that the investor base funding new student beds is widening geographically even as the beds themselves cluster in fewer countries.

What this means for students and institutions

The barometer surveys only investors and operators, not students, and it does not report rent levels or affordability data directly. But its findings bear on two separate questions that matter to students and the universities that recruit them: whether enough beds exist, and who is building them. On the first, the 3.1 million-bed shortfall and 13% average provision rate reported by Savills indicate that purpose-built supply will remain scarce relative to demand for years, regardless of this year's growth targets. On the second, the investment flowing toward Spain, Italy, the UK and Germany suggests students enrolling in those countries may see more new purpose-built accommodation come online than students in markets investors are currently avoiding.

The Netherlands case illustrates how directly national policy on international student numbers and English-taught programmes can shape investor appetite for housing — and, by extension, the accommodation options available to students once enrolment rules change again. Savills and The Class Foundation plan to track whether the Dutch government's move to drop compulsory assessment of English-taught programmes shows up as renewed investor interest in next year's edition of the barometer.

• Spain, Italy and the UK are the countries investors most want to expand in, at 15%, 13% and 13% of respondents respectively (Savills and The Class Foundation, 2026).
• Europe's student housing shortfall stands at 3.1 million beds, with an average provision rate of 13% (Savills and The Class Foundation, 2026).
• Dutch investor interest fell from 11% of respondents in 2024 to 4% in 2026, tied to earlier policy on international student numbers (Savills and The Class Foundation, 2026).