Students face ‘extreme pressure’ as they search for accommodation
For many students, living in the halls will hold some of the happiest and most special memories of their time at university. For some, finding housing can mean hours of screening, rejected applications and ending up having to rent miles away from campus.
In her first year, Abigail Irmer had to travel 1hr 15min to York St John University, by train, bus and a 15-minute walk, from her home in Doncaster. He said he was not given accommodation in the halls he chose and could not rent other houses nearby.
“It was very difficult,” Irmer, 21, a psychology student, says. “[Trains] they were always canceled and I was often late.”
Now in his third year, he has access to car and the university has given him discounted parking, but the journey still takes over an hour.
In her first year, Abigail Irmer had to travel 1hr 15min to York St John University from Doncaster.
While many universities offer accommodation to first-year students, many institutions only offer accommodation for those who have made their first choice.
For students who take their own insurance option or who come with clarification, as well as those in their second and third year, university halls are often not an option, leaving them to look for private accommodation or leave home.
Last year 15 percent of students lived at home with their parents, up from 12 percent before the pandemic, according to data collected by Save the Student’s annual National Accommodation Survey.
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More than a third, 39 percent, had to rent private accommodation, which is often more expensive and harder to find than student accommodation.
Tom Allingham, student housing expert at Save the Student, says the government should review the condition and availability of student housing.
“Not only do students have to live far away from their universities, but they still have to start looking for a house almost a year in advance,” he says.
“For first-year students, this is a major source of stress during their transition to university life and forces them to sign up to live with people they may have known for weeks.” just a few.”
The UK student population is rapidly outpacing the supply of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), but some cities are feeling the pinch more than others, according to data from StuRents, the student accommodation site.
Manchester, for example, had filled 85 per cent of PBSA in the city by May 2024, while only 35 per cent of housing in Coventry was occupied in the same month.
When beds are available they are often too expensive for the average homeschooler. StuRents data shows that London, Bristol and Glasgow are the cities with the highest weekly rents. A student in London can expect to pay an average of £289 a week for a room, while students in Bristol face a weekly rent of £220.
Richard Ward, head of research at StuRents, says the increase in rental properties has not helped home students, because they still can’t afford to live there.
“One of the issues, especially for home students, is that you have rising rents that haven’t kept up with the growth in maintenance loans,” he says.
“It’s not going to help your home student who has a budget of £130 a week, for example. That’s a big challenge, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change any time soon.”
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The rental crisis affects all types of students. Alice, a PhD student at the University of Bristol, had to take time off work and left in the middle of a lecture to attend a last-minute audition.
“Pre-scheduled viewings are often canceled because of other bidding groups, and sometimes agents only take five to 10 books before taking them off the market entirely,” he says.
Although she was about three hours away from Bristol by car, Alice was the closest person to the university from her group, so she went to the viewings for them. .
Bristol students face weekly fees of £220
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“I know someone who has to travel from Cardiff every day and someone who travels from Bath,” he says. independent, but these were £300 a week. It was completely unachievable.”
Aron, a fellow student at Bristol University, was relatively lucky in his first year living in the halls, but finding accommodation in his second year was a different story.
It was very difficult to find our house. “You can call the owner two minutes after they list the property and be told you’re 30th in line to view it,” he says.
“If you don’t have a confirmed group in November, you are missing out on suitable homes. Many people go to Facebook groups, which are rife with scams. ”
After commuting on public transportation his first year, Irmer was able to find housing for his sophomore year with three others in York.
They were paying £650 each a month, but problems with slugs and a broken shower had been left unsolved by the agency they hired. He said they were not allowed to fully control the boiler and it was turned off at night, which worsened the already severe mold problem.
Irmer worked 30 to 40 hours a week just to pay the rent, which meant he could spend less time on his studies. In January, when his shifts were reduced after Christmas, he wanted to quit school.
He says: “The stress of trying to get the money for the house, which was in bad shape, was too much. “I thought about leaving school. I only survived those months because I was lucky enough to go home and my mother fed me and made sure I could stay there as long as I paid the rent on my house in York.”
In his third year, Irmer decided that leaving was the lesser of two evils, and returned home.
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