Students are competing with young professionals who can pay higher rents in some cities.
Landlords with shared houses are picking up more enquiries from young adults out at work who can no longer afford to rent or buy a flat on their own.
For them, renting a room in a shared house is more economical - and they are often less stressful tenants for landlords.
Students sharing houses and flats pay around £320 a month plus bills each in Manchester, Liverpool or Birmingham and often considerably more in London.
Two young professionals sharing a larger flat spend around £800 per month on rent plus bills, so moving in to a house in multiple occupation can represent a considerable saving.
For the landlord, this also means the chance to charge rent for 52 weeks a year instead of the standard 10-month academic year - up to a 20% increase in rents.
Landlords thinking of mixing and matching student and professional tenants will probably find the opposite lifestyles will not gel with either set of tenants.
The National Housing Federation predicts a housing crisis over the next decade will push up rents and house prices as fewer young adults can afford deposits to buy their own homes. This squeeze on housing could produce bumper rents for landlords in the HMO sector.
The NHF expects house prices and rents to rise by 20% over the next five years - which may well make them unaffordable for students.
Federation chief executive David Orr said: “With home ownership in decline, rents rising rapidly and social housing waiting lists at a record high, it’s time to face up to the fact that we have a totally dysfunctional housing market.
“Home ownership is increasingly becoming the preserve of the wealthy and, in parts of the country like London, the very wealthy. And for the millions locked out of the property market the options are becoming increasingly limited as demand sends rents rising sharply.
“At the heart of this crisis is a chronic shortage of new homes. Despite the overwhelming need to increase supply, house building has slumped to a 90-year low, plunging the country even deeper into the mire.”
