Landlords with student lets in cities with universities charging lower tuition fees are likely to benefit as families look to cut costs.
More than one in five students will look for a cheaper course - partly because a quarter of parents will urge them to look at lower charging universities.
Gaining a good degree and enjoying a student lifestyle are still important, but with tight finances, half of students expect to graduate with more than £20,000 - and 13% expect to owe £30,000 or more.
The findings make credit control even more important for student landlords.
Students and their parents will have a tough time meeting their financial obligations while the cost of living is still rising apace.
Sensible landlords should sign up a rent guarantor for every tenant - and make sure credit referencing is carried out on the guarantor.
Families already in financial difficulty before the extra burden of paying the costs of sending a child to university are likely to slip further in to debt if they have to find an extra £10,000 a year on top of already strained budgets.
Landlords signing up guarantors should opt for someone in the family who is a homeowner rather than a tenant - debtors with their own homes are more likely to pay up than tenants who can easily move on.
To back this thinking, the findings of the survey by the Association of Investment Companies confirmed 88% of families are already experiencing financial difficulties
The study also revealed two thirds of parents will finance their children at university, and many will give up luxuries like new cars (17%), home improvements (13%) and holidays (24%) to raise the cash.
Some families are also raiding savings (43%) and selling investments (20%), while a few are considering loans (6%) and remortgaging (6%).
Money is so tight for many families (42%) that grandparents are also digging in to the pockets to give youngsters a good education.
