A UK property developer has said that there are over three students for every one bed in student accommodations across the nation.
Stripe Property Group recently found the ratio of student accommodation options to be 3.1:1, and found there is a shortage of nearly 1.5m student beds nationwide.
The company has estimated there are roughly 2,180,419 full-time students enrolled at universities across the UK. This is in contrast to the mere 697,734 student beds available to them.
The current demand for rental properties is still dire. Across 15 of the major university cities in the UK, nearly a fifth of available student properties have already been taken, leaving many students struggling to find adequate purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA)
Managing Director for Stripe Property Group, James Forrester, said: “It’s easy to see why the nation’s students feel their voice isn’t being heard on this issue as there is a real lack of initiative from the government to cultivate a thriving PBSA sector.
“Why would they, when they’ll happily sit back and collect the interest charged on student loans for the next thirty odd years, after many students have had to spend almost the entirety of their loan simply to put a roof over their heads?”
Mr Forrester also mentioned that now for every one student that does find a place to live, there will be more than two that will be displaced.
He added: “This lack of purpose-built living can cause an immense amount of stress and anxiety at a time when they should be focussing solely on their studies.
“As it stands, the private rental sector is left to pick up the slack but this often means paying way above the odds to rent a home that is quite often not fit for purpose.”
