Rents in student accommodation are growing, and as they grow, they both exacerbate the cost of living crisis and slow attempts to tackle economy-wide inflation.
NUS-Unipol research has consistently shown that Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) landlords tend to use RPI inflation as a floor upon which to base their even higher annual rent rises.
In many off-balance sheet financing deals for on-campus accommodation, RPI is stated as the increase that will apply. And plenty of universities offer “guaranteed” places in nominated private PBSA that are all likely to be yanking up rents.
So as rent rises continue, could government-mandated rent caps be the answer? Wales has been consulting, while most in England argue against, and there are loud voices in Scotland arguing that its temporary rent caps (in the PRS but not in PBSA) have been causing supply problems.
