The student accommodation market has proven to be very resilient in 2021.
While Covid continued to have an impact, either by limiting on campus
interactions or making international travel difficult, many students were
determined to continue as best they could.
Record year
As a result,
www.accommodationforstudents.com
achieved record numbers of enquiries from students and website visitors.
This partly results from the work the AFS team have done to continually
improve the website, optimising the experience for both students and
advertisers.
It also reflects strong demand for a University education, with record
numbers accepting a place in 2020, followed by another strong year for
University recruitment in 2021. As more students enter Higher Education,
demand for a place to live increases.
Enquiries increase across the board
With more UK students entering higher education this has increased the
level of demand for shared housing. It was noteworthy that in the early
part of the year the major growth in enquiries came for this type of
accommodation. However, in the summer AFS experienced a dramatic explosion
in PBSA enquiries and this continued throughout the autumn and winter.
As a result AFS has benefited from a 70% increase in enquiries – quite an
achievement for a mature website, which celebrated 21 years in business
this year.
Delivering value to our partners
The main positive from this is that we have been able to help even more
students this year and also deliver a substantial return on investment for
our customers. Even more positive news awaits as we anticipate more growth
in 2020, driven by further improvements to AFS, growth in student numbers
and a gradual return to stability for international students.
