As student needs and expectations continue to evolve with a desire for meaningful experiences and connection, student housing providers are under growing pressure to do more than offer a roof over customers heads.
At Yugo, the world’s first global student housing brand and operator, that challenge is being met head on with purpose and drive to create the world’s greatest global student community. Through its commitment to wellbeing, sustainability, and career development, Yugo is redefining what it means to live and thrive as a student today.
Robin Moorcroft, Senior Vice President of Commercial at Yugo, discusses the company’s ambitious global expansion, the role of student feedback in shaping its strategy, and how Yugo is building a living experience that resonates with the next generation, one that’s connected, student-led, and future-focused.
GSL News: Can you share about your role at Yugo and your main priorities?
My role is to support Yugo’s growth around the world, cementing our position as the preeminent manager in the student living space, to drive further scale and operate efficiently for clients in both existing and new markets.
My team and I are focused on aligning with institutional-grade partners and investing in their spaces so that we can deliver the best student living experience. This is sometimes in markets that have never seen purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), and at other times in competitive markets where our service offering is a real point of differentiation.
Our goal today is to reach 500,000 beds by 2030. While this might seem ambitious, we’ve already ticked over 100,000 beds and there’s much more to come in the immediate future and beyond.
In addition, what sets Yugo apart from other student housing operators is our ability to deliver scale with a truly international footprint. We’re already providing the best student experience in 14 different countries, and our ability to add further markets remains a key point of differentiation for us.
Our global reach means we’ve had to be very careful in underwriting our entry into each market, making sure the investment thesis and partnerships makes sense. That experience positions us exceptionally well to enter country 15, 16, or 17, often working with existing partners that have had previous success with us in other geographies.
We know we have to keep getting better and continue to deliver a heightened level of service as the demands of our customers increases, but with our ability to listen to customers’ feedback around the word, and adapt our offering to local markets, the world really is our oyster.
GSL News: Yugo positions itself as more than just a housing provider, focusing on sustainability, professional development, and student wellbeing. How do these pillars shape your strategy?
Yugo is not just about housing – we’re about creating vibrant, sustainable, and supportive spaces where students can thrive.
Our Live Your Best Life (LYBL) programme is the ultimate game-changer, designed from insights gathered from thousands of students worldwide. Based on three pillars – sustainability, professional support and personal development – students are empowered to live their best lives with confidence, purpose and impact.
The keen participation in this programme, which has engaged 420,000 students to date, is proof that these pillars resonate with students worldwide, and is something we should continue to explore with new and existing partners.
YugoEco is our sustainability pillar. This matters deeply to our residents and includes tangible actions like carbon literacy certification and energy-efficient living environments.
The second facet, which I personally really connect with, is YuPro. This is where we support customers in different professional development angles – creating job opportunities, CV workshops, networking programmes and innovation hubs whilst they live with us.
And lastly, there’s YuGrow, which is all about community and personal development. For many of our residents, it’s their first time living away from home, often thousands of miles away.
Creating a sense of belonging is crucial, not just to prevent feelings of isolation, but also to celebrate the experience of being part of a vibrant community. At Yugo, you live, learn and work with us, and to put that in perspective, 27% of Yugo’s workforce globally are students. A statistic we are immensely proud of.
We design our buildings and our student communities to support connection. That’s what makes PBSA compelling, and it’s also why universities want to engage with us.
GSL News: You mentioned that you survey your students every year to find out what they want. Could you tell us more about that?
Each year we survey students living in our spaces to understand the topics and issues that matter to them so we can better support their needs and tailor our offering to ensure it remains relevant to them.
We continuously evolve the questions we ask our students, and this year we included a focus on AI with its obvious impact on further education and wider society.
This year’s research of over 7,000 Yugo students revealed that while one in two are really excited by AI breakthroughs in productivity, health and tech industries, three quarters are worried it will impact their job prospects.
Having these insights is invaluable and it’s part of the reason we recently rolled out AI Prompt training for our students under the YuPro pillar of our Live Your Best Life (LYBL) programme.
GSL News: Are there any noticeable differences across markets – say, the US versus the UK – in terms of what students want and value?
The US and UK are our most mature markets, and because they are both established, there are many similarities in operations which allow us to efficiently transfer best practice between geographies.
That being said, one of the biggest differences lies in the location of universities, with US state colleges tending to be in smaller cities dedicated to the university, and UK universities often in urban centres as part of wider communities.
UK PBSA therefore tends to value transport links and may often provide access to multiple campuses, housing students from many different universities.
In the US, many universities sit in smaller college towns, making proximity to campus and strong on-site amenities essential because students rely more on the property itself.
Preferences may vary, but the fundamentals hold everywhere: students want safe, well-located housing with a strong sense of community. Sustainability matters too, however, even that presents as less of a focus in some countries due to cultural and political factors.
Clients come to Yugo for our global insight, but we never take a one-size-fits-all approach. We’re mindful not to impose a ‘European model’ when entering new markets; it’s all about blending global expertise with local nuance.
GSL News: How are student expectations evolving? Are there trends that have emerged or faded over the last few years? Anything on the horizon?
Student needs evolve fast – faster than almost any other real estate asset class. The majority of our current residents are Gen Z, which makes them digital natives. So, they want tech-adapted facilities, such as strong Wi-Fi for multiple devices.
We’re also observing a large cohort of students who are very keen on gaming within dynamic communities, so we’re adapting our spaces to support and integrate their activities.
Just around the corner is Generation Alpha, who will be the most tech savvy of all, using AI in highly immersive and interactive ways across multiple apps and touchpoints.
Furthermore, preferences are unique to each territory. Some markets prefer shared rooms, while others favour cluster apartments or studios.
In newer markets, studios make more sense to students as we look to attract them from the traditional rental sector. But, in territories where the PBSA market becomes more accepted, a wide range of students, including first year undergraduates want the social and practical benefits of cluster accommodation.
Across the board, affordability is a consistent theme. With rising tuition and living costs, delivering value for money is essential. That’s why we focus on ensuring the overall experience of living with Yugo is worth it.
We’re also seeing more demand for global connectivity. Students want to move between our properties and engage with peers across locations.
That’s why we’re building a ‘Yugosphere’ – a connected, cross-border community for living, learning, and collaboration. It reflects the mobile, global mindset of today’s students.
GSL News: On that note, are you seeing more demand for online events or digital engagement?
The COVID pandemic showed us the importance of an in-person experience for university students. Students showed up to take their place in our properties even if their courses were taught online. So, while online offerings are valuable, they don’t replace the sense of community that our many physical events bring.
With our Live Your Best Life programme we’ve seen the value of mixed events. For example, we offer online professional training with the likes of IESE Business School in Madrid, which is open to students and even our workforce.
We also cater for in-person events like creative art sessions, psychology workshops, seed planting and baking. Essentially, we want our residents to get out of their rooms and make connections.
GSL News: Yugo has presence in over 100 cities worldwide. Do you notice any trends in terms of certain regions having more opportunity in the PBSA market?
Right now, PBSA opportunities fall into two main buckets. First, development-led opportunities in markets with supply gaps and where construction costs still stack up for investors.
Second, it’s a consolidation play – clients with existing assets looking to drive efficiency and unlock more value through smarter and consolidated operations.
That’s why having a team that can deliver both buckets is critical.
On the development side, Italy and Poland are heating up. Italy has strong international universities, English-taught courses, low tuition and hardly any PBSA stock. Poland offers similar fundamentals, plus lower build costs and significantly growing demand.
Spain’s still moving forwards very well, with new projects in the pipeline. And we’re about to enter France under a new partnership with Global Student Accommodation (GSA) which is super exciting.
GSL News: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing student housing operators today?
One of the biggest challenges is affordability. Which is why Yugo offers competitive prices points across a range of rooms from single rooms to studios and cluster apartments, with high quality facilities and all bills included.
At a building level, it’s not just about navigating regulatory changes but also making sure we’re compliant.
In some regions, proposed legislative changes place greater responsibility on asset owners, and as a service provider, it’s our role to support clients in understanding and adapting to these developments.
Regulatory changes also evolve across the world. Some markets have rent caps and unique approaches to tenancy models with flexible leases. We have to adapt in each case whilst continuing to offer the best service possible.
GSL News: Yugo operates both its own spaces and manages properties for partners. What do you see as the benefits of Yugo’s third-party management model?
Having Yugo above the door adds real value – driving consistent NOI improvement which translates to increased asset values.
We bring intelligence, data, and resident insight that genuinely moves the needle. And every new building, city, or student customer we add to our network makes us smarter.
As we grow, we benefit from excellent economies of scale. Our scale allows us to attract and retain exceptional talent across key teams from operations and marketing to tech. That means our partners gain access to deep pools of local expertise, supported by global best practices.
People talk about dynamic pricing. We’ve gone way further and built proprietary systems, including our own integrated booking platform which takes just a few small clicks to book a room with no manual leasing required. This functionality combines with our ever-increasing brand presence, and I’m proud to say that recently Yugo.com was the most searched-for student accommodation site.
And then there’s experience. Our Live Your Best Life (LYBL) programme is shaped by the students themselves. That focus drives retention, which really matters, because rebooking is 10 times more likely with a happy customer, and attracting students to stay with us for multiple years dramatically reduces our marketing costs.
GSL News: How does Yugo approach partnerships with investors and property owners?
We aim to get involved early because we can add value at every stage. It might start with a simple thematic search, like an investor curious about student housing. From there, we align them with the right market and opportunity based on their investment goals.
We also offer consultancy through our design team, from architecture to interiors. We help clients optimise room layouts, amenities, and building massing to unlock more value.
Pre-opening, we help get buildings operationally mobilised and then lease to get them as full as possible for opening. Long-term, we ensure we are fully aligned with our clients’ goals of returns and growth.
We focus on innovative, strategic collaborations to build long-term relationships that drive success.
GSL News: You’ve mentioned that Yugo is set to enter the French student accommodation market. Can you share more about this acquisition and what it means for Yugo’s European footprint?
GSA has formed an agreement with Nuveen Real Estate to acquire the YouFirst campus portfolio from Gecina, with completion due this summer. Yugo will be the operator. The portfolio includes 3,600 student beds across 18 operational properties with four development assets. As a starting position of 22 assets in the market, we have an incredible platform to grow.
It’s worth noting that a transaction of this scale is incredibly rare in French PBSA.
This partnership sends a strong signal of intent to the market about our continued ability to deliver large, complex transactions in new markets, working alongside highly respected institutional investors.
Operationally, this also marks a shift. We’re essentially taking a portfolio that’s been operating within the French residential space and elevating it with the international student experience model we’ve built at Yugo.
GSL News: What’s next for Yugo? Can you share any upcoming expansions or innovations?
On the growth front, we’re expanding across Europe – which huge momentum in Italy, Portugal, Poland and France. We’re also maintaining strong pipeline in UK, Germany and Spain.
Another game-changer? Partnerships. As Europe’s largest operator, we’re fast becoming the go-to partner for collaborations that truly elevate the student experience.
Our partnership with the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula 1™ team as a student housing operating partner is a major new milestone, connecting us with top-tier brands and a highly engaged Gen Z audience and motor racing fans.
This is a game changer for our business with physical activations and unique experiences for students living with us world-wide.
Watch this space – there’s much more to come!
