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EDUCATION

Cost of city living prices out students without private wealth

Rent rises outstrip 2.8% growth in maintenance loan
An aerial view of Birmingham University, West Midlands, UK
Birmingham has minimal bed spaces priced below the average maintenance loan
ALAMY

Fewer than one in ten rooms in university cities are affordable to students on maintenance loans and grants, a report has found.

Student rents have increased by almost 10 per cent in a year in many destinations, and nearly 20 per cent in Glasgow, which has a particular shortage of accommodation.

The annual report from Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate company, tracked the availability and cost of student accommodation in 170 locations across the UK.

The average rent for purpose-built student accommodation takes up 84 per cent of the maximum maintenance loan on average, and 77 per cent within the capital, leaving hardly any money for living expenses. The average rent is £8,353 across the UK for the 2023-24 academic year and £7,633 outside London.

While the student maintenance loan has increased by only 2.8 per cent, overall rents have increased by 8 per cent and those for purpose-built student accommodation have risen 9.4 per cent on average — and by 19.4 per cent in Glasgow. Just over half of the total demand can be attributed to five markets — London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester and Bristol, the report said.

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Rents have increased by 12.1 per cent in Leeds, 12.6 per cent in Newcastle and 13.4 per cent in Manchester, since last year. “This surge has been driven by growth in student numbers across almost all major markets, rising operational and development costs, high inflation and a declining rate of new delivery,” the report said.

Durham, Exeter, Birmingham and Nottingham are among the major university markets with minimal to no availability of bed spaces priced below the average maintenance loan amount this academic year.

David Feeney, a partner at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “Affordability stands as the biggest challenge to the UK’s student housing market, with maintenance loans and grants failing to keep pace with rising rents.

“Persistent inflation means that any loan and grant increases still represent a further real-terms cut.”

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The report says there are more than 2.2 million full-time students in the UK with almost 1.5 million needing accommodation — with half of them based in 12 towns and cities.

There are more than two students for every available accommodation space, rising to 2.5 in London. Demand has grown in the past decade by almost 390,000 students with only 200,000 bed spaces added over the same period. This has been fuelled partly by an “explosion in international students, especially postgraduates”, the report says.

Bristol is home to the highest private sector rents of any major location outside London
Bristol is home to the highest private sector rents of any major location outside London
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It claims there are continued constraints on new development with many of those coming to market being priced well above average.

Bristol has experienced significant growth in student numbers without supply keeping pace, the report said. Almost two thirds of students in the city looking for somewhere to live cannot access purpose-built student accommodation and it is also home to the highest private sector rents of any major location outside London.

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This year, the University of Bristol has offered student accommodation in Newport, south Wales, for the first time.

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