Once the baccalaureate is in hand and the Parcoursup results obtained, many students embark on the quest for accommodation for the start of the school year. Something to inspire investors.
But which student cities to choose in 2023? Meilleurs Agents, specializing in online property valuation, unveils its list of 25 cities suitable for investing in a student studio, with an analysis of opportunities and risks*.
Roubaix, Limoges, Loos: pearls for a student rental investment
Smaller towns, located near metropolises, are interesting this year for a rental investment in a student studio. Thus, three of the cities appearing in the list of Best Agents have less than 100,000 inhabitants.
With an attractive price of €2,367 per m² and an average rent of €17.70 per m² for a studio, rental investment in this type of property offers an average gross return of 9% in Roubaix (North).
In Limoges (Haute-Vienne), with €1,932 per m² (the most competitive price in the ranking) and an average rent of €14.40 per m², profitability in the city is 8.9%.
Integrated into the Lille metropolis, Loos (North) “presents itself as a student city par excellence since the number of registered students is equivalent to 56% of its total population”, underlines Meilleurs Agents.
The average price of a studio is €2,764 per m², for an average rent of €17.90 per m² and an average gross return of 7.8%.
“Roubaix and Loos offer particularly interesting profitability opportunities compared to Lille, a student metropolis where prices are much higher, reaching an average of €3,644 per m².
In addition to profitability, we assess risks using scores related to rental vacancy and property devaluation, explains Barbara Castillo Rico, head of economic studies at Meilleurs Agents.
Nearly 31% of households in these two cities live in a studio, which reduces the risk of non-rental. Moreover, the outlook for depreciation is moderate, with a price increase of 28.3% in Roubaix and 21.4% in Loos over the last five years. »
Nancy, Rouen: a strong rental market
In addition to profitability, many criteria must be taken into account to carry out a rental investment project, such as the share of tenant households in private housing, a good indicator for assessing the risk of rental vacancy.
In 4th position in the list, Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), a city which has the equivalent of 30% of registered students in relation to its population, thus shows a strong rental market since more than one in two inhabitants is a tenant of the private park, and in particular of a property of the studio type for nearly 27% of them.
With an average price of €2,787 per m² and a rent of €17.50 per m², Nancy offers a gross rental return of 7.5%, with one of the lowest investment risk scores on the list: 1.9 out of 5. The prospect of depreciation of the property is low, as prices have increased by 5.50% in one year and by 28.53% in five years.
The finding is similar to Rouen, where half of the population is also a tenant, including more than 31% of a studio. But rental profitability is lower (7%).
Brest, Perpignan: rising prices but still attractive
Some cities in the Best Agents ranking stand out for their attractive prices in a rising market. Brest (Finistère), in 10th position, is a good illustration of this trend: despite a 53% price increase over the past five years, they remain competitive with an average of €2,611 per m² for a studio.
While it has the equivalent of 20% of registered students compared to its population, the city has a gross rental return of 6.9% on average and a low risk score, identical to that of Nancy.
Perpignan is part of a similar dynamic, with a price increase of 40% on average in five years. In terms of price, the square meter nevertheless amounts to €2,784 per m² in the city for a studio.
Dijon: low investment risk
Dijon (Côte-d’Or), in 14th position, has seen its prices increase by 31.45% in five years (i.e. €3,183 for a studio), which corresponds to the average price increase of the 50 largest cities in France over the same period (+ 31%).
In total, 23.3% of its population is student. If the gross rental profitability is lower than in other cities (6.3%), Dijon offers the lowest investment risk score of 1.8 out of 5, with Angers.
Villeurbanne: lower rental profitability
With a price per m² of €4,406 (+33.78% in five years), Villeurbanne (Rhône), in 21st position in the ranking, does not offer a high gross rental return rate, i.e. 5.3%, if we compare it to Roubaix for example. But the investment risk score is lower and weaker (1.9 out of 5).
* The total risk is measured by a score ranging from 1 to 5 and is an average of two sub-scores: the rental vacancy risk score and the property depreciation risk score. The first takes into account the share of vacant housing, the share of private renting households, the share of renting households in private one-room apartments and the number of students enrolled in a higher education institution in the city in relation to its population. The second takes into account the change in population between 2014 and 2019, the unemployment rate in the employment zone in the 2nd quarter of 2022, changes in the price of apartments and the real estate purchasing power of the city.
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