News

Rise in rents for student lets across UK

15 August 2012

Students receiving their A-level results this Thursday experience commencing their university lives with two issues of higher tuition fees as well as increase in rents.

Yearly research from website Accommodation for Students (AFS) indicates that the average rent has increased 2.4% since last year, from £67.11 to £68.70 a week.

All new students beginning the new academic year will be confronted with yearly tuition fees of between £6,000 and £9,000 for the first time.

AFS bases its UK-wide table of rents on over 100,000 properties in 77 cities.

The complete table, on the AFS website, demonstrates that London leads the way with an average weekly rent of £107.29. However, Guildford moves up to second place with an average weekly rent of £93.46, only overtaking Exeter in third at £93.42.

This year there are several substantial movers up the table. Winchester student rents have increased 20% from last year’s £71.80 to £86.40, the sixth highest in the UK and one place higher than Oxford, which itself increased 7% from a year ago to £85.57. Durham has gone up 20% from £66.75 to £80.21 and is just outside the top ten.

Further down the table, Lancaster has gone up a huge 24% from £57.46 to £71.36 and Newcastle-under-Lyme, home to Keele University, has risen 9% to £70.49 from £64.65 in 2011, which was itself 13% ahead of £57.31 in 2010. Hull student rents have risen 25% to £56.90 this year from £47.72 in 2011, which was in the bottom five.

Other risers include Middlesbrough up 13%, Preston up 11%, Sunderland and Coventry, both up 8%, and Lincoln up 7%. Of the larger university towns, rents in Bristol and Newcastle rose 6% and Leeds 5%.

Best value with regards to the lowest average weekly student rent is represented by Pontypridd at only £45.94, pursued by Stockton at £47.45, Stoke-on-Trent £49.20 and Middlesbrough at £49.21, in spite of its 13% rise over last year.

Simon Thompson, co-founder and director of AFS, stated: “The UK rental table and student guides on our website will hopefully be extremely useful to all new UK and international students who are hoping to get places through the clearing process and face key decisions in terms of choice of university.

“They will be able to see exactly how much accommodation is likely to cost in all the cities where they are considering attending university.

“A key factor in determining student rents is the desirability of attending some universities. That puts pressure on the accommodation available and, hence, the charging of higher rents. Winchester, Durham, Lancaster, Exeter and Newcastle all come into this category.”