[rovyko]

I lived in university-run student residence and in student-oriented rentals. The amount of wasted space was unbelievable considering everybody spent the vast majority of their time on campus. We didn't need an 86sqft living room, it just filled up with garbage. I couldn't find an apartment with just bedrooms, a tiny kitchen and a bathroom.

What I really wanted was one of these tiny apartments [0]. Build a whole apartment of these near campus, students only sleep at home anyway, and sometimes not even that. My univeristy is building a new residence and it has the same 3-5 bedrooms to a giant apartment with a living room.

I wonder what's the main barrier to building a lot of tiny single student apartments. Is it the municipal regulations, are they not economical or did research show that students actually want living rooms?

EDIT: Just look at the size of these living rooms. I've been in so many of these apartments and they're almost always full of boxes and trash.

- http://www.rez-one.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/MG_6020.jpg

- http://www.rez-one.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/MG_5991.jpg

- https://uwaterloo.ca/housing/sites/ca.housing/files/uploads/...

- https://uwaterloo.ca/housing/sites/ca.housing/files/styles/i...

- https://uwaterloo.ca/housing/sites/ca.housing/files/styles/i...

- https://static.wixstatic.com/media/29eef9_c0378e178fda4f0b84...

0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYVJbupG3Xg

[lumost]

Kitchens and bathrooms are expensive components to an apartment. Arranging the living space so that those are shared significantly drives down the cost of construction. dorm rooms with a shared floor wide bathroom probably achieve the same space efficiency as a 5 bedroom shared apartment with a bathroom and living room, with the added benefit that it will be easier to sell the building as apartments in the future should the need arise.

[rovyko]

I wouldn't mind a shared bathroom or kitchen, but I don't understand the massive living rooms. My guess is it makes the unit more marketable to higher income students that in a lower volume can pay more in total for a given plot of land.

[buss]

> Is it the municipal regulations

The answer to these questions is almost always "it's the law." Most cities have habitability requirements that mandate minimum sizes and required rooms. What'll end up happening, as happens here in SF, is that the residents will throw up a temporary wall in the living room to split the rent further.

The answer lies somewhere in https://library.municode.com/tx/austin/codes/code_of_ordinan...