Guidelines for the development of Student Housing buildings

Abstract Student housing was discussed in the literature under the aspects of residential preference and satisfaction; inducing factors of behavior and demand in the real estate market; and influencing variables in choosing the habitation. However, the works that approach topics about real estate meant for students and the new products of the Brazilian real estate, the ones named Student Housing (SH), are scarce. Within this context, the objective of this research is to propose guidelines to orient the development process of SH buildings. For this purpose, the work proposed, initially, through a comparative study of seven SH real states, to investigate the main characteristics of this product model. Such information, added to the bibliographic review of the literature, allowed the exploration, through a survey, of university students’ opinion about the importance of four pre-established requirements. The results revealed that many attributes present in new Brazilian SH buildings are not considered important or are indifferent from the students' point of view, which shows additional and unnecessary costs for investors. In contrast, the study identified several requirements valuable to users. Based on thist, twelve guidelines were suggested to orient the student market designers, developers, and investors in the development of their products.