“More families in China have hopes that their children will have experience studying or living overseas, and some Chinese brands dispatch their staff overseas as they expand globally,” said Meng Yue, general manager of Ziroom’s asset management platform, who also heads the company’s overseas business.
He cited the record 13 million Chinese students who sat the national university entrance examination, or gaokao, this year, who could translate into potential tenants when they graduate in four years’ time.
The market size, given that more than a million Chinese go abroad to study each year, is above 100 billion yuan (US$13.8 billion), a figure that will continue to grow as their numbers increase, he estimated.
“We have seen huge demand [for student accommodation] in the past few years, but few existing apartment operators or agents are ready to serve the growing group,” said Meng.
Traditional agents find it hard to meet all the demands of Chinese students, he added.
“Student tenants from the mainland favour flat-share units affordably priced between HK$7,000 (US$965) and HK$10,000 per month.
“It’s not easy for them to find accommodation on a one-stop platform, let alone gain landlords’ trust to pay a deposit and transfer a massive prepayment. We are capable of filling this gap,” said Meng.
Ziroom’s digital experience as an enterprise rooted in China for over a decade will help it overcome “pain points” for Chinese tenants renting overseas, he added.
Founded in 2011, the company, originally an internal project of the deceased entrepreneur Zuo Hui’s property brokerage company, Lianjia.com, has grown into one of the nation’s biggest home rental platforms and long-stay apartment operators.
Ziroom said it manages more than a million flats across China, and has served some 5 million tenants and operated properties for nearly 500,000 owners. It raised 4 billion yuan in a round of fundraising led by Warburg Pincus, Sequoia and Tencent in 2018.
Currently the available rooms on Zabit are offered in cooperation with other apartment brands locally, which are verified as “real and reliable to cater mainlanders’ demands” after selection, according to Meng.
Customers can pick single-bed rooms, multi-bed rooms, as well as studio and long-stay flats through Zabit’s platform, with staff available to respond to their inquiries around the clock. Tenants can be compensated with up to one month’s rent if any complaints arise, Meng said.
Offline outlets in Hong Kong and overseas countries are in the pipeline. Ziroom also plans to add self-owned rooms as the business continues to grow.
“Our aim is to become the first choice for overseas Chinese tenants in three years’ time,” Meng said.
Student accommodation is becoming one of the most popular segments for property investors because of the rising number of Chinese students and widening gap between supply and demand.
In Hong Kong, the demand for private student accommodation is expected to increase from 37,200 to 59,500 beds by the 2027-2028 academic year mainly because of an influx of non-local students, according to estimates by JLL.
In one of the first major forays by a Hong Kong developer into student accommodation, Wang On Properties recently converted a hotel to a 720-room hostel with some 1,450 beds.
Centaline Property, one of the city’s biggest property agencies, last month said it planned to own and operate 2,000 beds as student accommodation within the next three years.