The UK purpose-built student accommodation market is forecast to have a shortfall of circa 29,000 beds outside of London in 2023.
Student accommodation search platform StuRents published the findings in its latest report, in which it redefined its definition of “demand for PBSA” to deliver what it claimed to be more accurate data.
Rather than looking at the total number of students per bed – as most data sets do – it focused solely on what it has called “core demand” for PBSA – that is students who were likely to opt for PBSA over houses in multiple occupation.
This included all first-year students living away from home, plus second and third-year international students and international postgraduates. StuRents then looked at how the levels of this core demand had changed over time against changes to PBSA supply in the 30 largest university towns and cities outside of London. The company typically excludes London from analyses as it is a “very different market to the rest of the country and can skew the insights”.
It found that between the 2017-18 and 2020-21 academic years, PBSA supply in the UK exceeded core demand, which meant providers were partially reliant on second and third-year domestic students, who would be more likely to rent an HMO.
That trend has since reversed and the gap between PBSA core demand and supply looks set to continue growing.
According to StuRents, Bristol and Glasgow are among the locations with the most scope for more PBSA. The cities have scope for 6,490 and 7,285 more PBSA beds respectively.
Richard Ward, head of research at StuRents, said: “Higher education in the UK continues to be very alluring, with both domestic and international numbers on the rise. Demand has increased significantly in Bristol and Glasgow, and supply growth is simply unable to keep up.
“This creates significant challenges for students looking for housing in both cities, as Glasgow University’s decision to end its first-year housing guarantee demonstrates.”
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