Research conducted by student rentals platform ‘studenttenant.com’ has found that the demand for student properties is still significantly exceeding the availability of them, following an examination of the top universities in the UK and their property demands.
For some students, once they have been accepted into their chosen universities they are then hit with the big problem of trying to find somewhere to live during their studies with limited availability, with many students unable to secure any accommodation before their studies are scheduled to begin.
The results of the research were collated by awarding each university a score based on the level of student properties listed compared with the number of students that had a let already agreed, and being four months into the academic year, the amount of universities that scored highly in terms of demand for rent is very worrying.
The highest scoring university by a long stretch was the University of Exeter with a staggering demand from students of 62%, with the University of Reading, University of Bath and Bath Spa University all following with a demand percentage of 53%.
The University of Creative Arts in Farnham highlighted the crisis clearly, following a 50% demand percentage which resulted in students actually having to camp out on the university grounds because they had failed to secure any accommodation to live, which is extremely worrying.
The Managing Director of StudentTenant, Danielle Cullen, has commented, “We feel that it is simply unacceptable that students, as they have in Farnham, are forced to camp within the university campus due to a severe shortage of housing.”
Surely something needs to be done now to support students wishing to study in the UK with available housing, and this needs to be made a priority to eradicate anything like the situation in Farnham every happening again.
