Student landlords - latest student rents

Over the past 5 years the average weekly student rent has risen over 19%, from £52.44 in 2004. London leads the way with an average weekly rent of £104.13, 63% above the UK average. Guildford, rather surprisingly, is now the second most expensive place to rent, at £87.86 per week, 38% above average and 6% above last year, probably reflecting the popularity of the University of Surrey. Likewise Canterbury, which hosts the University of Kent, is now in the Top 10, at £72.90 per week, 2% over last year.

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The most expensive towns to rent for students are in the South of England, with the notable exception of St Andrews, at £80.48 per week, 26% above the UK average, and by far the most expensive town in Scotland. Chester, at £74.25, and Ipswich, at £73.77, also make the Top 10. Cambridge, at £87.86 per week, is 16% more expensive than its rival Oxford, where the average weekly rent is £75.72.

Some traditional English redbrick universities: Liverpool (£53.96), Birmingham (£56.75), Manchester (£58.58), and Sheffield (£59.34) are still below the average UK weekly student rent (£62.61).

Best value locations in terms of student rental accommodation are the less fashionable student towns like Stoke-on-Trent, Middlesbrough, Crewe, Pontypridd, Stockton and Hull, with average weekly rents of under £50, Stoke’s being the lowest at £41.90. By comparison, Wolverhampton, in the bottom three last year at £44.10, has seen student rents jump by 17% this year to £51.40.

Simon Thompson, co-founder and director of Accommodation for Students, said:

“Now that students are accumulating large borrowings to subsidise their study, the cost of accommodation has become a critical factor in their choice of university and our UK-wide league table for rents is a valuable tool for new students in assessing their choice of university.

Despite the credit crunch the student housing market is still buoyant. There will always be students! And their numbers continue to increase. The number of full-time students went up 11% in 2008 over the previous year and UCAS reported in April that the number of university applicants this year is up 9% on the same time last year.”

Accommodation for Students which is endorsed by celebrity landlord Craig Phillips has over 750,000 registered students. It is top of the UK search engines and receives over 475,000 visitors per month, with an average site visit time of over 7 minutes.


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