Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>This article estimates non-resident students’ willingness to pay (WTP) for student-housing attributes in Trieste, Italy. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was administered online to non-resident students enrolled at a public university in Trieste: 86 eligible respondents completed 20 binary choice tasks (1 720 choices). Alternatives varied by monthly rent (including utilities), campus accessibility (walkable versus public transport), accommodation type (double room, single room, entire dwelling, student housing), bathroom configuration, and thermal comfort. The experimental design was generated in Ngene. Binary logit models were estimated and marginal WTPs were computed as ratios to the rent coefficient; an extended specification interacted income with accommodation type to capture heterogeneity. Location, rent, and accommodation type are the main drivers: all else equal, respondents are willing to pay about €97 more for walkable accessibility and about €270–€280 more for single rooms or entire dwellings (relative to double rooms). Bathroom configuration and additional thermal comfort are not significant on average. Income significantly amplifies preferences for independent solutions, with higher-income students exhibiting higher WTP for single rooms, entire dwellings, and student housing. These estimates provide monetary parameters that can inform the composition and siting of student-housing supply and the calibration of rents and targeted subsidies, within the limits of a single-city stated-preference study.</p>