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Business World |
July 2015
126
STUDENT HOUSING
SUCCESS
Dealing with students and student housing
can be a toss-up of positive versus negative.
On the one hand, they’re in continual flow
in and out – every year brings with it a new
crop to replace the graduating class. On the
other, there are the horror stories and dis-
regard for property, not to mention noise
complaints, among other things.
Looking to put his travels from around the
world into action, Fraser set out to build the
housing units after the street-faced style de-
velopments in Europe.
“I wanted a four-sided building with a court-
yard in the center but the planning commis-
sion wouldn’t go for it,” he said. “So we ad-
opted a plan to a U-shaped configuration, so
the first one was a complex of 9 townhouses
– five bedrooms all linked together with out-
side entrances.”
“This was our very first foray into our area
that anyone had ever built a student-housing