The UK student accommodation sector is failing miserably to meet expectations which are being generated by rising tuition fees.
The UK student accommodation sector is failing miserably to meet expectations which are being generated by rising tuition fees.
Only 28% of student accommodation fully meets rising student demands, according to DTZ's newly released Student Accommodation Tracker. Of the 460,000 rooms available in the market only 129,000 are en-suite, less than four years old and within 10 minutes' walk of the University campus.
These are all standard requirements for today’s students outside London, the study revealed. Changing demand is leaving many cities with a stock of purpose-built student accommodation that is no longer desirable, the report warned.
In 2013 the average annual price for university owned accommodation with en-suite rooms in prime locations was £5,350 (€6,404) compared with £5,360 for privately owned. DTZ said that this shows the perception that private accommodation is more expensive than university owned is no longer correct. In fact, on a like-for-like analysis of the most popular stock the variations in price are not pronounced.
However, differences can be seen in schemes further from campus. Universities are charging considerably more than the private sector for the least desirable accommodation aimed at captured first year cohorts. A university owned room built before 2000 and located over 25 minutes away from campus cost £3,185 in 2013 compared to a similar privately owned room at £2,279.
Students are utilising social media to form friendship groups before they arrive at university, which gives them more choice to live in private sector accommodation. As a result, universities may struggle to fill sub-standard accommodation and may be forced to restructure their portfolio.
Sarah Jones, associate director of education, at DTZ commented: 'Universities must think about how they can re-develop their stock to meet the needs of today’s more demanding student. In future the Student Accommodation Tracker will be able to measure trends over time which will make it even more valuable.'
