The Olympic Village of the athletes participating in the 2026 Winter Olympics which will involve Milan will be transformed into university residences. The after comes before the before. This is enough to understand that The student housing market is also booming in Italy. Global investments in the student housing sector are around 18 billion dollars and if the trend is increasing, it means that investments will also have a return here. In our country, for 2026, as many as one hundred thousand beds in university cities are expected, more than double the current ones, with contracts that, according to the urban regeneration plans supported by the Recovery Plan, will be traceable to deal with the deregulation of recent years.
Student housing and fitness: a delicate union
The novelty is not so much in the real estate expansion intended for this target, but in the chain of ancillary proposals that will compete between one project and another. Fitness, with both standard and personalized spaces and services, will be among the protagonists, so much so that it is under the magnifying glass of the designers. True, the real estate players who will take care of it have a high profile, but everyone knows a lot about architecture and technologies, so we exclude these as competitive factors. The real game will be played on ancillary spaces (co-working, gyms, greens, pedestrian areas, sustainable mobility) and on a multiplicity as well as multi-channel of connected services shared and used as more or less free benefits in long-term leases.
As another variable, it should be considered that in the empty phases this residential will be destined for managers, tourists, medical patients or family members of students, therefore the configuration of the spaces and the preparation of the related wellness services will have to fit perfectly with this sporting demand which adds complexity. Let’s go back to the students. From experience, the target of the “client-fitness” university student is not easily satisfied. Disadvantages: he is always attentive to novelty, he is a perennial observer, he is critical and constant with respect to the spatial and technological choices of any traditional gym. And then he is social and makes judgments. Quality compared to that of others, be it a smart trainer or a “cool” gym, is in his DNA. Advantage (enormous): this customer-user is a free supplier of information from the very first tour in the gym or sports space.
It has happened more than once that a student questioned the undersigned to evaluate the technical skills of the person who would have taken care of him (myself), placing the quantity of machines available in the gym in the background. Making the fitness service that will be offered autonomous and not focusing attention on such a crucial demarcation line could create the same difficulties experienced by some gyms that are ever brighter, ever more elegant, ever richer in technology but poor in ” interceptors of needs” who socialize in the field with the client left alone in the gym during the holiday weekend.
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