Scion has been engaged by the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) on three different occasions as they proceed in their journey to adding student housing to campus.
NAIT was one of Scion’s first clients in Canada in 2010 when Scion completed a student housing market and demand analysis for the Edmonton campus. Scion did a full study, including an online student survey and analysis, focus groups, stakeholder interviews, intercept interviews with students, and an off-campus market analysis in Edmonton. The original study indicated a strong demand for campus housing. As the campus progressed over the years on land acquisition to place housing, the study was updated by Scion in 2016 with a new off-campus market analysis and a new survey of students.
In 2019, NAIT awarded a new project through a competitive process to a team of Deloitte and Scion to complete a new student housing market and demand study as well as P3 Advisory work and financial analysis. Within this process, Scion completed a new student housing market and demand analysis and the initial financial feasibility analysis for the campus. This project also involved reviewing all previous studies by Scion and another group and bringing forth a comparative analysis between the new conditions and previous conditions, considering the changes in the off-campus market and the evolving enrolment situation. The primary issues of difference revolved around the changing demographics of the student population and the increasing number of student housing facilities in the City of Edmonton. Scion provided this comparative analysis to illustrate the reasons for the general similarities in the study results but also to highlight the specific differences that would need to be considered in future housing planning for the NAIT campus, considering the competition in the market, the market’s historical volatility, and the planned growth of enrolment with its demographic changes.