Blended living or co-living has been touted as a possible solution to housing issues across university cities at the Class of 2020's conference.

European think tank The Class of 2020 will host its student housing conference in Germany this year, with a focus on "blended living".

Despite dipping slightly from 2017 to 2018, global investment into student accommodation totalled $17.1bn last year, entering its third year over $16bn, market research by Savills shows.

The Technical University of Denmark is building a residential complex of 312 studio apartments catering to international students in north Copenhagen.

Investment in student housing in the UK is expected to increase in 2018 with international students playing a pivotal role.

International students in the Netherlands have resorted to sleeping in campsites in some cities and a parliamentary debate has taken place on capacity problems as there is simply not enough accommodation to meet demand.

Rental housing company Greystar has acquired Spain’s largest student accommodation provider Resa in a joint venture deal with two investment firms.

Mizuho Financial Group is gearing up to enter the student housing market by raising a ¥10bn ($91.8m) fund to capitalise on a shortage of purpose built accommodation for the growing number of overseas students in Japan.