The wait is over! View the November 2023 Rentsync National Rental Demand Report.
The wait is over! View the November 2023 Rentsync National Rental Demand Report.
Mobile phones have come a long way in just under ten years. Remember the days of having to hit a numeric keypad three consecutive times just to type a single character for a text message? Or what about the 160-character SMS text message limit (that Twitter would later go on to adopt as for their 140-character tweet limit)?
Thankfully, these limitations were relegated to the past with the introduction of new mobile technologies. One technology in particular that dramatically changed the capabilities of cell phones was the introduction of 3G networks to North America in 2002. At that time, the student housing industry was still a tiny niche market and the term "purpose-built student housing" was primarily reserved for on-campus residence halls only.
Fast forward ten years to 2012; it's around then that we started seeing a shift in the way renters, especially student tenants, access information about rental accommodations.
In 2015, Google published a study illustrating some search behaviours and trends for online apartment hunters that produced some interesting statistics:
The last two points are most significant. Mobile apartment searches are becoming increasingly common, particularly with the younger renter demographic. The following illustrates the increase in mobile traffic over the last few years to our website, Places4Students.com.
Other research also suggests that mobile apartment searches are skyrocketing in student housing. A white paper published by Catalyst Austin titled, The Mobile Revolution in Student Housing, found that 51.92% of student housing website traffic was generated from mobile devices.
It would be reasonable to predict that this number will continue to grow, along-side a moderate decline in student housing website traffic from desktop/tablet devices. In further support of this data, a report from think with Google stated that millennials are more than twice as likely as the average person in the U.S. to explore real estate information on a mobile device.
A mobile-friendly website will become an absolute necessity. As early as 2015, Google has already been showing preference to mobile-friendly websites. Is your site mobile-friendly? If not, Landlord Web Solutions can help with that.
A presence and regular engagement on social media channels will become increasingly important. Consider that the white paper from Catalyst Austin found that 87% of social traffic and 73% of paid searches came from mobile devices.
Student housing owners and operators should start exploring other mobile capabilities that can be integrated with their properties, such as mobile property inspections.
As we've discussed before, the student housing market tends to be an early-adopter of new technologies, as its residents are more tech-savvy compared to other multi-family segments. To keep up with its residents, student housing professionals are encouraged to embrace the mobile shift and look at ways to incorporate it into their overall marketing strategy.
Guest blog by Places4Students.com
Manage cookie settings
Rentsync collects cookie data to provide a better user experience, but we offer you choices regarding how we and our third party providers collect and use the cookie data.
Necessary Cookies
These are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features. If you do not allow these cookies, you won't be able to use our site properly.
Targeting and Tracking Cookies
These record your visit to the Rentsync website, the individual pages you visit, the links you follow and the type of device you use. Our use of these cookies might also mean that you may see Rentsync adverts on other websites. Our partners may also use information recorded by these cookies to see how well their ads are performing. If you do not allow these cookies, you may see more content and adverts that do not match your interests.
We use cookies from third-party advertising partners to deliver relevant advertisements to you both on the Rentsync website and on other websites. To opt out of a third party's use of cookies and behavioural advertising, you must visit their website and follow the specified opt-out procedures.