Traditionally, their university is the sportiest in the UK, but students at Loughborough may not be too happy about coming top of a new league table. According to website StuRents, university-goers in the East Midlands town are paying 36% more a week for their accommodation than other residents living in the same areas – the biggest premium charged by landlords in the country. While those who (in theory) spend their days at lectures are charged £80.21 a week for a room, their non-university-going counterparts are typically paying just £58.94 each.
The research, based on costs for 25,572 student properties and 127,504 non-student properties in postcodes across 51 towns and cities, found that landlords were more likely to charge a premium in places where private rents were relatively low. After Loughborough came Durham, where students are paying an average of £94.17 a week, compared with non-student rents of £71.42, while third place was taken by Lincoln where students are paying an average of £84.02 – almost £19 a week more than other tenants. That is quite a difference to recoup through cheaper pints in the student union.
Even with a premium, the weekly rents paid by students in some of these towns are likely to bring a tear to the eye of those studying in cities such as London, Oxford and Cambridge. According to StuRents, students in the capital pay 32% less than other tenants, but still face rents averaging £202.40 a week. In Oxford and Cambridge, student rents are also less than the going rate, but still come in at more than £100 a week. The biggest discount was found to be in Reading, where renting as a student typically costs 39% less than other tenants pay.
Of course, the averages mask wide variations in what people pay, and this is probably the case in London more than anywhere. While some students are squeezing into tiny rooms in converted houses to keep their rents close to £100 a week, others are spending 10 times that to live in some of the city’s poshest areas.
Tom Walker of StuRents says: “The consensus in the northern half of England seems to be that students represent a more premium demographic, and rental prices are adjusted upwards to accommodate this.” Which sounds OK if students are getting a premium product for their money, but not so good if they are just being charged more for the same thing.
The National Union of Students says students are facing a cost of living crisis, with rents double the level they were a decade ago. “It’s clear that landlords exploit student tenants and create overinflated markets in student towns and cities,” says a spokesperson. “But that doesn’t detract from the fact that there’s a huge housing crisis and ‘cheap’ places to live rarely exist any more.”
