The changes facing university cities as growing number of students move in to shared homes are reflected in new figures for shared houses in Bath.
The city council is debating taking on extra planning controls to curb the number of shared homes - houses in multiple occupation (HMOs).
To support the move, the council has looked at the number of shared homes in the city’s Oldfield Park neighbourhood over the past decade.
The article 4 direction will stop landlords converting family homes in to multiple lets for three to five tenants without applying for planning permission.
The council is believed to be considering a rule banning new HMO conversions in an area where 20% of homes within a 100-metre radius are already shared housing.
Councillor Will Sandry, who has a seat in the neighbourhood, reckons the area has seen a massive influx of house conversions in the past 10 years.
He has broken the statistics down in to streets and reveals the increase in the number of HMOs since 2000 as:
• West Avenue - 400%
• Beckhampton Road - 155%
• Arlington Road - 133%
Across the neighbourhood, the average increase is 100%.
Triangle North has seen the number of HMOs rise from 29% to 67%, Arlington Road from 21% to 50% and West Avenue from 6% to 29%.
In some streets, like Triangle North and Stanley Road West, 80% of adult residents live in shared houses.
Mr Sandry said: "Longer- term residents in and around Oldfield Park are concerned at the massive increase in the number of HMOs. The effect has been to increase the population density in what was already one of the most densely populated parts of the city.
"While the majority of these homes are occupied by students, Oldfield residents are not anti-student, but they are opposed to excessive numbers of HMOs and summer ghost towns."
