Student accommodation developer International Campus Group in a joint venture with Alkyon Partners is launching a new residence in Krakow, Poland, under the brand ‘THE FIZZ.’
The residence will feature around 1,000 apartments for students and young professionals, with a focus on shared spaces, community areas and social activities typical of the brand.
It will be located on the science and technology campus in the “up-and-coming” neighbourhood of Zablochie.
“We are looking for interesting hotspots like Krakow, which are attractive to young people”
Both International Campus and Alkyon Partners explained that Krakow is a particularly interesting city to invest in for student accommodation developers due to its large student population.
“The city is booming and has a young, international and very vibrant technology and entrepreneurship scene that attracts many well educated young people,” International Campus’ Alexander Gulya explained in a statement.
International Campus CEO Horst Lieder told The PIE News that Krakow is a focus of the company’s pan-European strategy.
“As part of our pan-European strategy, we are looking for interesting hotspots like Krakow, which are attractive to young people,” he said.
He added that the complex will also be marketed directly to international students, but that there will be strong demand from the local students as well.
“It is important that the local rental market is so strong that about 50% of our tenants come from [Krakow].”
Poland is hosting an increasingly large number of international students, Paulina Kropacova, senior research manager at StudentMarketing told The PIE.
She said that international student numbers have risen from 10,092 students in 2005/2006 to 65,793 in 2016/2017, which in combination with a shortage of student accommodation, makes the country particularly interesting for investors and developers.
“Together with the current shortage of beds provided by both universities as well as private investors, it represents one of the most interesting markets in the booming Central & Eastern Europe private student housing market,” Kropacova added.
“Warsaw, Cracow, Lublin, Lodz, and Wroclaw are the top Polish cities by international student population and some of the leading international student housing investors are now naturally looking at these markets.”
