The AFS team presented the latest research report at a webinar on the 28 th of April. The research shows that students are satisfied with
their accommodation and current university experience.
Despite the challenges of the last two years students score satisfaction
with their accommodation 7 (on a scale of 10) with over half of respondents
a highly satisfied 8 or above. The survey of over 1,000 students also
revealed high levels of satisfaction with university life overall with an
average score of 7.5.
Property management important
The survey revealed that one of the most important criteria for student
satisfaction with their accommodation was how well the property was
managed. Students are broadly satisfied with their property management
(6.9), however those that experienced the best standard of property
management were likely to be most satisfied overall.
Price and location less important
While previous AFS research has indicated that price and location were the
two most important criteria for students when searching for accommodation,
this research revealed that these factors had little impact on satisfaction
levels once the student had taken occupation of the property.
This is highlighted by the fact that students who lived over 1 hour away
from University were just as satisfied with their accommodation as those
that live under 5 minutes walk away. Furthermore, students who were the
least satisfied with the amount of rent they paid were just as likely to be
happy with their accommodation as those that indicated high satisfaction
with rent, once more emphasising the import role of the landlord.
Online methods
The research revealed the dramatic rise in online methods, both for
searching for accommodation and studying and perhaps most importantly
students’ satisfaction with these methods.
This is best illustrated by the fact that students were just as satisfied
with property viewings undertaken online as they were with a traditional
property tour. Furthermore, those students who were currently using online
or a mix online and in-person study methods were as happy with the quality
of their teaching experience as those that were on campus in more
traditional teaching environments.
Find out more
To get further details and find out what the longer-term impact on the
student accommodation sector will be you can access the slides
here
