We’re proud to announce that the University of South Carolina Upstate has named Housr its Official Off-Campus Housing & Living Partner.
Every USC Upstate student can now download Housr for free, start saving with student discounts around Spartanburg and find a roommate through Roomie. They'll also be able to search for off-campus properties and listings in and around Spartanburg, all in the same app.
USC Upstate is our first university partner in South Carolina and our first anywhere in the Southeast.
USC Upstate students at Morgan Square Madness, the Spartans' basketball tip-off at Fifth Third Park in downtown Spartanburg. Photo: USC Upstate.
A campus that's growing fast
USC Upstate has had a great year for admissions. This fall, the university enrolled 5,442 students, up 7.7% on last year, with 844 first-time first-year students and a continuing undergraduate population that grew 9.7%. Graduate enrollment jumped 17%. Donette Stewart, the university's vice chancellor for enrollment services, put it plainly: "This growth demonstrates the continued demand for a USC Upstate education."
Founded in 1967, USC Upstate is one of four universities in the University of South Carolina System. Its main campus is in Spartanburg, with a business school downtown and classes at the University Center of Greenville. More than 5,000 students means a lot of people who need somewhere to live, something to do on a Friday night and a way to find both without juggling six different apps.
The student population is spread across both on-campus and off-campus housing at USC Upstate
USC Upstate requires full-time first-year students to live on campus, unless they commute from a parent's home within 35 miles or meet an exemption like being 21 or older. First-years live in Magnolia House, while Palmetto House takes in both first-years and upperclass students. Between them, the two halls hold up to 352 students in 87 suites. The Villas adds apartment-style units with kitchens for upperclass students.
Even with the Villas, on-campus housing covers a small share of USC Upstate's 5,442 students, and most Spartans live off campus, around Spartanburg and across the Upstate. The university's Housing and Residential Life team fills its own beds first, and Housr is designed to work alongside that.
So we built this partnership around how USC Upstate already runs housing, without pushing leases on students before they're ready:
Settle in: Students get used to the app, save some money and find the people they want to live with.
Look around: Students who want an early look will be able to search for off-campus properties and listings in and around Spartanburg.
Plan ahead: The full housing search is there when Spartans are ready to plan for the following year.
"USC Upstate asked us to fit around how they already run housing, so that's how we built this launch," said Michael Parnello, Chief Revenue Officer at Housr. "Spartans get one free app for discounts, roommates and off-campus housing, built to work alongside the university's own housing."
Spartans in the stands at Fifth Third Park. Photo: USC Upstate.
Getting to know Spartanburg beyond campus
Housr Perks brings student discounts from Spartanburg businesses into the app, alongside offers from national brands. For students, that's more reasons to get downtown to Morgan Square and more left in the budget at the end of the month. For local businesses, it's a direct line to a student body that's new to town or still getting to know it. Businesses can promote their events to the USC Upstate community through the app too.
The photos in this post are from Morgan Square Madness, the free downtown event where USC Upstate introduces its basketball teams to the city each fall. That's the kind of Spartanburg we want students to feel part of, well before they sign a lease here.
What USC Upstate students get
Perks: Student discounts and offers from Spartanburg businesses and national brands.
Roomie: Roommate matching with other USC Upstate students, instead of a group chat that goes nowhere.
Housing search: Verified listings in Spartanburg and the wider Upstate, curated by Housr's team.
Tours in a few taps: Book a viewing without picking up the phone or sending an email.
Landlord messaging: Questions and maintenance requests happen right in the app.
Family Service: Parents get their own view, so they can follow along with the search from home.
What USC Upstate's housing team gets
Housr's University Portal gives the Housing and Residential Life team at USC Upstate a live view of the off-campus picture, including:
Each student's housing status: Secured, touring or not started
Where students are living, with occupancy analytics
Engagement scores for each enrolled student
Reported landlord issues and flagged problem properties
Visibility into student-landlord conversations, with multi-level admin permissions and audit reporting
Housr is free for students and free for USC Upstate, with no implementation cost. Participating property operators and local businesses fund the platform. Listings stay current because we connect to the systems operators already run, like Yardi and Entrata.
The Spartans women's basketball team takes the court at Morgan Square Madness. Photo: USC Upstate.
Housr's origin story, and how far it's come
We started Housr in 2021 at the University of Manchester, out of frustration with how hard it was for students to find somewhere to live off campus.
In the U.K., we work with universities and students' unions including the University of Birmingham and the University of Reading Students' Union. We've since closed a $10 million Series A backed by Ashta Capital and Juniper Equity, and opened our U.S. headquarters in Chicago.
First stop in the Southeast
USC Upstate is our first partner in South Carolina and in the Southeast. It joins the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the University of Oklahoma, Webster University and Creighton University on our U.S. roster, with more launches on the way.
If you own or manage property in Spartanburg or the wider Upstate, or you run a business USC Upstate students should know about, get in touch. Operators can get listed now, ahead of the student housing search, and businesses can add student offers while Spartans are first opening the app. If you're at a university working out your off-campus housing strategy, we'd like to hear from you.
USC Upstate students: download Housr now from the App Store or Google Play, or at housr.com. Keep an eye out for us on campus soon.
*USC Upstate does not endorse individual properties, landlords, realtors or businesses available through Housr. Listings and participating businesses are managed by Housr.
Download the Housr app
The Housr app helps you manage everything in one place. Search for your next house with friends, arrange property viewings and chat to landlords directly.
We also send exclusive promotions and events to our student community via the Housr app, giving you plenty of opportunity to get freebies and save cash at uni.
