To look at whether the recent completion of 144 brand new apartments for Burlington’s undergraduates might lead to a permanent easing of Burlington's rental market, Seven Days consulted VHFA’s Sarah Carpenter and other area housing experts.
The consensus? With such a large number of UVM undergrads still living off campus, recent efforts by UVM and Champlain to increase the number of student beds will have a positive, yet slim effect on the overall Burlington rental market. Nearly 4,000 UVM students lived off campus this year, according to the Seven Days article.
While St. Michael’s and Champlain have committed to housing all of their undergraduate students, UVM plans to hold the portion of its undergrads housed on campus at the current 60 percent level. With regard to these diverging approaches, Carpenter commented that “marketed well, on-campus housing becomes a positive part of the college experience… UVM seems not to have done that.”
Read the full Seven Days article
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