As part of our ongoing programme of research we regularly review rents. We
do this by using the rental data from our website as well as from external
sources.
This year we have reviewed rents across private housing, private halls and
university owned halls, to complete a comprehensive picture of the current
state of the market.
It is interesting to note that while much of the broader coverage of rents
in the student accommodation sector focuses on the premium end of the
private halls of residence market, there are actually a wide range of rents
available, presenting a picture of a healthy and functioning student
accommodation sector.
Private landlords continue to provide value (and above average levels of
satisfaction) with the average rent value (ARV) per week for a bedroom in
2017 at £89, an increase of 2% from the previous year. 59% of such
accommodation now have bills included, which, on average, adds £14 per week
to the rent.
At the other end of the scale the ARV per week of a private hall is £168.
There is a significant regional variation in this figure, with a room in a
hall costing £279 in London, for example. While such headline prices
continue to attract media interest, this sector saw only a modest rise in
rents in 2017 (1.4%) and within this some cities even saw a decrease in
rents Kingston, Oxford, Leeds, Newcastle, Cambridge, Nottingham,
Lancaster),
Broadly speaking, University halls sit somewhere in the middle, with an ARV
per week of £135. The weekly ARV of university halls is £42 more expensive
than traditional digs and £29 cheaper than private halls.
There is therefore a good range of choice provided by the different types
of accommodation available to students. If you are interested in further
detail a full copy of the report on each sector is available by emailing
[email protected]
