Exploring Community PRS: The Evolution and Marketing of Diverse Housing Sectors

We all know property is an important sector. The ebbs and flows of pricing, housing stock, and development impact the people who live in them and the community around them. 

Within the continually growing property sector, the Private Rented Sector (PRS) is one of the fastest-growing housing types. It currently houses over 11 million people, and whilst this saw a slight dip at the end of 2020, this is now beginning to rise again. 

The easiest way people define PRS is that a landlord, individual, company or investor, leases a property to a tenant. However, with development comes new housing stock, new initiatives, and new classifications. Within the PRS sector, we have extended the acronym fun to include PBSA and BTR – alongside Coliving, multifamily and senior living.

It's a lot of words and letters meaning different but similar things. So here at The Property Marketing Strategists, we have set ourselves a task of trying to help the sector understand what they all mean and whether there is a combined sector/community we can all identify and network with. 

So let's start with what we know.

Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA)

As it says on the tin, this is a block/blocks of residential accommodation explicitly built for students. It can be a range of flat types from 3 to 8-bedroom cluster flats to Studio Apartments and one or two-bed apartments. Students can include undergraduate or post-graduate students. 

Within PBSA, you can also talk about on-campus and off-campus accommodation. On-campus is precisely that, located on or near the university campus. It is generally dedicated housing for the host university. 

It doesn't take much to follow that off-campus accommodation is located off the university campus, in town or locations associated with student communities but not on the institution's land or within its control. 

On-campus accommodation can be operated and owned by the university or managed in partnership with a private provider. Off-campus accommodation is usually privately owned and managed and often houses students from across a range of institutions. However, some of these operators can sign nomination agreements or leases with universities – which means that the beds become dedicated beds for that university partnership. 

Whilst student accommodation or halls of residences has been around for a long time; the burgeoning PBSA sector has developed and grown into an asset class worth £60bn in the UK. It is a growing asset class, but whilst it is probably one of the oldest new styles of PRS, it is still growing, maturing and developing. Typically, its arrival has seen changes in student accommodation which means most are now ensuite rooms and beyond the flat cluster kitchens include vast and ever-increasing competition for the best new communal social, dining and entertainment spaces. 

Student experience is an important commodity for universities, and by its nature, the need to be part of this experience for accommodation operators is vital. So community, experience and wellbeing are all parts of the service that PBSA operators will argue they are experts in delivering. 

Build to Rent 

Build to Rent is an asset class within PRS and has been added to the glossary within the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). It is a growing sector, and global property consultancy Knight Frank found a 79% increase in investment volumes in BTR in 2021 compared to the same point in 2020. Essentially BTR is homes built specifically to be rented - these buildings must include at least 50 homes owned and managed by one landlord.  The NPPF definition has been included below.

"Purpose built housing that is typically 100% rented out. It can form part of a wider multi-tenure development comprising either flats or houses but should be on the same site and/or contiguous with the main development. Schemes will usually offer longer tenancy agreements of three years or more and will typically be professionally managed stock in single ownership and management control."

In reality, BTR has been around for a long time, but its increased development in the UK is in part due to rising house prices driving the age of first-time buyers higher, especially in our city centres. We are seeing in the UK a move to a more European housing market which doesn't see the same right of passage for young people to own a home, with many renters in Europe being lifelong renters. 

The increasing development in the BTR sector is adding more communal facilities (gyms, swimming pools, gardens) to properties. Like student accommodation, these operators are working to make renting these homes more attractive for this growing rental pool – establishing community, service, easy living and first-class facilities in a readymade and like-minded community the driver for choice.

Coliving 

Coliving is a new and growing concept which offers a modern form of communal living in which residents get a private bedroom in a furnished home with shared common areas. You could say that this is student accommodation, and you wouldn't be wrong. And many in the PBSA sector would probably say that their sector was the first form of Coliving. This new movement is taking what has been successful in student accommodation and expanding it to broader markets – digital nomads, graduates, young professionals, apprentices etc.

By its very nature, Coliving puts a lot of emphasis on community living. It is developing communal shared spaces which become a vital part of the attraction of living within a Co-living development. 

BTR/Coliving – what is the difference?

The short answer is probably not a lot. They provide rental rooms to a diverse customer base, focusing on the facilities and community that living in the property means you can become a part of. However, BTR focuses on renting a whole apartment in basic terms, whereby Coliving will often be offering (and yet another acronym) HMO (Houses of Multiple Occupancy) leases. So, when you take a room in a flat, you will be living with strangers, but by the nature of the community that attracts – they will be like-minded.

Multifamily is a term more prevalent in the United States and is essentially multiple separate dwellings (which can house separate families) within one building. BTR and Coliving are essentially multifamily but aimed at the rental market.

Senior-Living

There is another growing asset class with PRS, which is senior living. Whilst it is a different age group to those often targeted above, the facilities, sense of community and no-hassle living all deliver the same as PBSA, BTR and coliving. Aimed at retirees that no longer want the maintenance, cost and hassle of home-owning. Instead, they can rent a home in a retirement village, living amongst state of the art facilities, an active community and everything they need on tap. 

A connected community

At The Property Marketing Strategists, it is clear to us that what connects these asset classes within PRS is the focus on community. The common thread amongst PBSA, BTR, Coliving and senior living is evident. Operators use their communal spaces, fun-loving, young (or youthful in outlook), like-minded community to sell its product. Without this sense of identity and chance to join your new tribe, you are just renting homes. With this sense of community, friends, sense of belonging – you are selling a lifestyle. And it is this, in our view, that connects and brings them together under a Community PRS banner. 

And it is this Community PRS sector that we at The Property Marketing Strategists aim not just to help grow and develop their marketing capabilities but also to help them connect, network and learn and grow as a sector together. 

On a marketing level, beyond the bricks and mortars, it is this sense of lifestyle, community, and belonging that operators in community PRS are promoting. And with this should come a strong sense of brand identity and reputation, which can drive increased rental periods, repeat business and word of mouth marketing. 

In our Property Marketing Survey earlier this year, we discovered that marketers and leaders in the sector all identified with different sectors – universities, property, education . Few noted PRS as a sector that they work within. This means that the benefits of learning, networking and understanding the broader picture in the sector is not easy to obtain. 

In driving the "Community PRS" sector forward, developers and individuals across BTR, coliving and PBSA will be able share knowledge. Whether it's their developments, the benefits of their space, or talent, the knowledge is better shared to move forward together. This is why at The Property Marketing Strategists, we work to host webinars and create a friendly and inclusive space, regardless of your job role in the sector, to network and gain insights. 

If you wish to contact us about how to market your properties from PBSA, BTR, and senior living, get in touch with us here.