When Subtext talks about building from the resident up, they mean it literally. From the moment a site is selected to the day a resident signs a lease, every decision at the US student housing developer and operator is filtered through a single question: how will this affect the resident experience? It’s a philosophy that has helped Subtext develop over $3 billion in student housing across the United States, accumulate a portfolio of more than 20,000 beds, and continually adapt to evolving resident expectations, delivering an experience that not only meets the moment, but pushes it forward.
GSL News sat down with Mitch Korte, Executive Vice President, Development at Subtext, to explore what resident-first development really looks like in practice, how student expectations have shifted in recent years, and how the company’s “10-second rule” is changing the student experience.
A portfolio built around the student lifecycle
Subtext operates across two core segments: purpose-built student housing and multifamily with a focus on major university and urban markets. Within student housing, the company has two distinct brands – VERVE and EVER. Its multifamily brand, LOCAL, is designed to serve what Mitch describes as the transitional moment – students moving into graduate study or their first professional roles.
“We really felt like that was great from a business standpoint,” he explains. “We learned so much about residents while they’re in that student housing stage and then transitioning that into the next phase of their life has worked out really well.”
The portfolio currently has 10 projects under construction, with five due for delivery this year and a further four breaking ground in the same period.
From amenities to the full lifecycle
The resident-first philosophy isn’t new to Subtext – the company has operated this way since its founding in 2013. What has evolved is the scope of its application. In the early years, Mitch says, the focus was squarely on amenities: what could be added to a building to enhance the resident experience? Over time, that thinking has expanded to encompass everything from site selection to long-term asset management.
“Even as early as site selection, we’re thinking about how residents are walking around campus or moving through the city – what the night life looks like, where the coffee shop is, what the most popular major at that university is,” Mitch explains. “All of those things factor in.”
The shift has also been shaped by changes in the resident population itself. Students who moved through high school during COVID, Mitch notes, came out with different values and different expectations than those before them. Keeping pace with that requires constant observation – of what residents say they want, as well as how they actually use the spaces they’re given.
“Together but alone”: the collective private mission
One of the more striking observations to emerge from the conversation is Subtext’s observation of a student shift towards what Mitch describes as the “collective private mission” and Subtext’s design and programming response. Mitch describes the “collective private mission” as a specific emotional mode that students increasingly seek in shared spaces – they don’t necessarily want to be overly social, but they want to be around others. In response to this shift, the Subtext team ensure that public spaces can accommodate this.
We’ve definitely increased the number of private study rooms, but they’re also out in a kind of public area. People don’t want to sit in their unit and study – they want to be out, but they still need to focus. They want to be on their own and be an individual, but also have this connection at a distance. I don’t know if it’s a reaction to COVID or something else, but it is definitely a thing.
Rebalancing spaces: more study and wellness, less “club”
Mitch notes the importance of bringing operations teams into design reviews to make sure that new designs reflect changing student preferences.
They’re the ones that are on site, and they’re interacting with the residents, and they’re seeing how people are utilising spaces, so getting their feedback daily, and making sure that everything that they’re seeing is being implemented in new projects is critical. This means we’re not just sort of doing the same things over and over, but taking a second to think about, okay, how would we change things in that space – did that actually work? Are people using it more, or should we go back to the drawing board and try to find something else?
This approach has meant that club rooms at Subtext properties have become slightly smaller over the past three years, while fitness and wellness provision and study space have grown as student preferences have shifted. Crucially, though, Mitch stresses the importance of making sure that spaces are multi-purpose.
“We think about emotional missions – wherever the resident is in their day, whether they need to focus, decompress, or connect with people, we want to support the students in achieving those missions throughout the building,” he explains. “So, for example, even within the club room, you may have your main area overlooking the pool for socialising, but off to the side there will be some booths with a little more solitude and privacy. You create that space within the space.”
VERVE West Lafayette. Image supplied by Subtext
The 10-second rule
If there is a single principle that encapsulates Subtext’s approach to technology and operations, it is this: if a resident can’t complete a task in 10 seconds, you’ve already lost them.
“It’s anything – connecting to a TV in a conference room, picking up a package, submitting a request to operations,” Mitch says. “If that can’t be accomplished in 10 seconds, you’re introducing friction and taking away from the overall experience. These are Gen Z residents who’ve grown up with interfaces optimised to give them exactly what they want as quickly as possible. Any extra step pushes them away.”
This principle is stress-tested rigorously before a building opens. The Subtext team physically walks through every resident-facing technology touchpoint, checking whether it actually works the way it should:
We physically go through and audit all of those experiences in the building and make sure they work. So, if I am a resident, and I am walking into this study room, and I sit down, how quickly can I connect to this TV or this conference room? It’s really about vetting all those experiences and tweaking them. And if it takes 15 or 20 seconds, we try to find a better solution so that we can ensure students have that smooth experience.
The conference room TV connection has been a recurring challenge – Subtext has tested corded connections, in-table connections, smart TV Wi-Fi mirroring, and more over the past two years. The goal, Mitch says, is to get to the point where a resident opens their laptop and is immediately prompted to share their screen.
“It’s been an effort to nail it down,” he concedes. “But if you’re going to study for a test and you can’t get connected to the TV, that’s just not acceptable. You only get one chance – it doesn’t work once, and they’re discouraged and won’t go back.”
Technology non-negotiables
When it comes to the baseline technology residents expect, Mitch is clear about the hierarchy. Wi-Fi is first – Subtext now installs Wi-Fi 7 across its projects. Access control runs close behind, both as a convenience for residents and as a safety reassurance for parents. Package management is the third critical pressure point: the volume of deliveries at the start of the academic year has to be seen to be believed, Mitch says, and every part of that process – notification, collection code, locker access – needs to be frictionless.
Rounding out the non-negotiables is a unified resident app. “They shouldn’t have to jump around between different apps to do different things,” he says. “Everything in one place.”
On the question of whether the focus should be on having the newest technology or on making existing technology work seamlessly, Mitch’s answer is unequivocal: integration over novelty.
VERVE West Lafayette. Image supplied by Subtext
Competitive pressure and the year-two effect
Student housing development in the US is a highly competitive environment, and Mitch is candid about the pressure to differentiate. He believes Subtext’s product quality already outperforms the majority of the market – the work is in understanding how Subtext can differentiate itself from the competition.
Whether it is a new amenity or programming – it could be wellness, or bringing in cold plunge and a sauna, or Hyrox into the fitness centres – we are always thinking about what’s new and different that will really differentiate us.
Cost pressure is the other constant tension. New amenity programming, wellness infrastructure, and emerging technologies all carry price tags, and these have to be weighed against rising construction costs and the commercial realities of getting a project delivered.
The evidence that the approach is working, Mitch says, comes from what happens once a building is open. Pre-lease velocity in year two – when prospective residents can actually walk through a completed building, talk to staff, and experience the coffee shop in the lobby – has, in his words, “skyrocketed” compared to year one, when they’re leasing based off renderings alone.
“Rendering can only take you so far,” he says. “Once people can get into the space and really experience it, they’re appreciating it and they’re valuing it. That, to us, is the justification for everything we’re doing.”
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About Subtext:
Subtext is a vertically integrated, national real estate company focused on elevating the resident experience. From student living to attainable housing to conventional multifamily, Subtext creates thoughtfully designed communities that foster connection, productivity, and well-being. Its resident-first approach combines top-tier expertise, in-depth market research, and resident feedback to deliver lasting value. Subtext cultivates spaces where renters can live their best lives. For more information about Subtext, or to inquire about opportunities, visit subtextliving.com.
