The key facts
- The Education 33 strategy aims to raise the share of international students at Dubai's private universities to 50% by 2033; currently it is about 35% (14,709 out of 42,026 in the 2024–25 academic year).
- Experts name the main market gap as quality purpose-built housing at mid-market prices; students without access to campus housing turn to private rentals with informal sublets.
- Experts cite the main market gap as quality purpose-built housing at mid-market prices; students without access to campus housing turn to private rentals with informal sublets.
- The shortage is felt most acutely outside Dubai's university clusters — in Sharjah and the northern emirates.
The goal is 50% international students, but they have nowhere to live
Dubai faces an acute shortage of student housing, and this shortfall is directly hindering the implementation of the state Education 33 strategy, experts say in a report by The National. The strategy envisions that by 2033 international students will make up 50% of the total enrollment at the emirate's private universities — an increase of roughly 15 percentage points from today's level. According to the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), in the 2024–25 academic year foreigners accounted for about 35% of students in Dubai's private higher education: 14,709 out of 42,026.
What market participants say
Professor Gisela Loeffler of De Montfort University Dubai (about 1,500 students) noted that housing has historically remained on the periphery of the discussion and only recently rose up the agenda. Students, she said, ask for shared apartments, roommate matching and communal living formats, while the priorities of
A market gap and the Sharjah experience
Amit Arora, chief operating officer of Arada Hospitality and Entertainment, which operates the Nest student campus in the Aljada project in Sharjah, considers the main market gap to be quality purpose-built housing at mid-market prices: students without access to premium options end up in private apartments with informal subletting, fluctuating costs and minimal support. Nest offers more than 3,000 beds in 10 buildings with separate male and female sections, 10 minutes from University City Sharjah; about a third of residents are University of Sharjah students, and Air Arabia cadets and Sharjah Sports Club athletes also live there. In his assessment, the shortage is most acute outside Dubai's main university clusters — in Sharjah and the northern emirates; the adjoining 395-room Nest Hotel has in recent months shown occupancy above 85% thanks to short stays by families, faculty and delegations.
Investor interest and conditions for capital
Zacky Sajjad of the consulting firm Cavendish Maxwell calls student housing a growing opportunity for regional developers and links this to a structural shift in the Gulf real estate market: after a decade of dominance by the luxury segment, the next ten years, in his view, may be defined by co-living. Arora identified three conditions that determine how quickly institutional capital arrives: transparent data on supply and demand, long-term partnerships with universities (nominations and lease agreements that provide income predictability), and operator scale with diversified demand. Loeffler adds that it is not only a matter of the balance of supply and demand: when students and faculty live near campus, a UCL school in Dubai focused on the business of healthcare, underscores that the housing question is coming to the fore precisely against the backdrop of growing international enrollment.
