Inside the Student Housing Amenities Evolution

When I was in college, my student housing amenities included a small lounge with a vending machine and a laundry room where if you didn’t get your stuff into a dryer the second the machine finished, your wet clothes would unceremoniously be dumped on the floor by whoever wanted to use the machine next. And we were happy with those amenities. (I also had to walk a mile to class, uphill, both ways.)

Then when I started working at Multi-Housing News, luxurious student housing amenities were all the rage. Anyone remember the amenity arms race: lazy rivers, tanning beds, golf simulators? It was a lot. And expensive. And, honestly, a lot of those amenities were underused.

Now things are a little different, with developers focusing on the things students actually want and use, not just replicating—or trying to one-up—their competitors. Take, for example, Subtext, which editor Mikayla Sciortino profiled in “Bringing VERVE to Student Life.” With its VERVE brand (with two of the properties winning 2025 MHN Excellence awards), Subtext is focusing on purpose-built designs and amenities that will get used, such as a coffee shop.

“One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned is that students don’t necessarily want more amenities but spaces they actually use throughout the day,” Leisha McVicar, Subtext’s director of interiors, told Sciortino. “(The coffee shop) creates a level of energy and daily activation that you don’t get from a traditional lobby or resident lounge.”

Need ideas for your own community? Find out what else Subtext is up to, and how other student housing developers can follow its lead!