Prices Of Accommodation

In the past few years, the cost of student accommodation has become a massive concern for a plethora of university students. With rent increasing by almost 30% in the past five years, students are finding it increasingly harder to afford to live. This issue is interfering with student’s studies, their university experience and is forcing them to get a part-time job.

In some of the larger cities like London, Bristol and Manchester, rent is exceeding over £700 a month for a small room with the minimal requirements. This is causing these young adults lots of stress, panic and causing them to not enjoy their one in a lifetime experience at their chosen university.

According to the BBC, the average annual student rent went from £6,520 in 2021-22 to £7,475 in 2023-24. This increase in due to a verity of different reasons. One of the main reasons is accommodation being higher in demand due there being much more students in the past couple of years. This makes accommodation much harder for students to find. By Christmas time, all of the nice places to live for reasonable prices are quickly taken for the following year, leaving the run-down accommodations left for the rest.

Another big reason for rent prices to have risen so dramatically is due to the rise of operational costs for a house and high inflation. This all adds up for the homeowner and means they have to up their prices on their rent to carry on making money.

In Plymouth, the rent is not horrendous compared to other larger cities, however, some rent can be quite expensive for what you get. Amy Hext, a Plymouth Marjon University student says that she pays £126 per week to live in the student village on campus and thinks it is “Too much money”, due to what comes with the “Small and confined space”.

Here is a short audio clip from Amy Hext:

Although living in the student village has its cons, at least it is close to the campus. I spoke to a student from Cardiff here at Plymouth Marjon, Lauren Opie, and she lives around a ten-minute drive from the campus, however has a much nicer living situation. Not only does she pay cheaper per week at £115, she also lives in a large and spacious student house.  Lauren says she would “Much rather live further away and sometimes have that struggle of getting to uni but live in a nice house than live on campus but have no room for anything”.

Here is a graph that shows how much rent rose over the past few years, with Bristol being the most expensive at almost nine and a half thousand pounds per year. This could most definitely take a toll on some students with mental health. The minimum maintenance loan in England is £3,790, meaning they’d have to pay £5,410 out of their own pocket if they were having to pay the most in Bristol. This would also mean the student would most likely have to be working a reasonable number of hours per week in a job alongside their university work, causing them to not enjoy the uni lifestyle, having no free time and causing them to have a bad mental health

A second-year student at Plymouth Marjon University, Brody Pascoe, has gone back to living at his parents’ house after spending his first year in student accommodation. He said that “It was too expensive”, when he could be living in his parents’ home for free. “The living conditions were rubbish”, and he “Had to live with messy people”. Brody said this time in his life was not the best and he is much happier now that he is going to university in his own home. He has much more time to do his university work as he doesn’t have to cook, do his washing, go food shopping and clean the house. He claimed he has seen an improvement in his work since being back at home as he has no distractions and much more time on his hands. Brody believes living in student accommodation is overrated and living at home while at uni is a much better idea.

COVID-19 took a big toll on student accommodation. During the pandemic, most students work was online, meaning lots of people done their work from their own home. This meant students didn’t need accommodation. Landlords had to then raise their prices to an all-time high, on average, for them to make the money they needed to make. Since then, the prices of student accommodation have stayed the same and has yet to have gone down in price.

In 2023 a group of students said that the cost-of-living prices affected their academic performance and their health and wellbeing, causing them to have a poorer university experience. This shows, high prices can really effect students mental health and make them struggle while getting their degree. University is known to be a young adults best years of their lives, however that may not be the case anymore.

Students are now having to get part-time jobs to keep up on their food shops, rent, night life and general outcomes. It is becoming a luxury for students to have a car nowadays as no one can afford the crazy expense for insurance, petrol and the car price in general, so students are having to get a bus or walk to university if they live far away. This can take a toll on students’ mental health too, as they are having to get up extra early to make their lectures in time. This is causing them to get minimal sleep and giving them not as good of a grade as what they could get if they had optimal sleep.

Overall, student accommodation is very expensive, especially for the conditions they are living in. There is nothing students can do about it, however, it is taking their best years of their lives and turning them into the most stressful years.