800 New Student Flats

[or in excess of]

800 new student flats planned by Plymouth University .Friday, November 09, 2012 NeilShaw

Follow.Plymouth University plans to create an additional 800 student bedrooms on campus to be available from September 2014.

The university said these new facilities will meet a significant shortfall in demand for approved, allocated accommodation for first year students and will also serve to free up much-needed city housing stock for the private market.

​University of Plymouth, by Bao

.Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, Professor Wendy Purcell, said: “A recent national student satisfaction survey showed that on campus student accommodation was one of the key factors in choosing a university. We enjoyed excellent recruitment figures this year, however of those who wanted to join us but were unable to do so, the key reason was because we could not guarantee accommodation.

“Our students contribute nearly £100 million to the Plymouth economy each year, a figure which will continue to grow under these proposals to sustain our healthy recruitment statistics. Furthermore, we will continue to invest to support the student experience and ensure that we maintain a contemporary and fit-for-purpose estate with inspirational surroundings for our students, staff and local communities."

The plans will see the creation of a new ‘Western Gateway’, further integrating the campus with the city. This will be achieved through the refurbishment of all current university accommodation, comprising houses mainly used as offices, and the redevelopment of Pitts Memorial Hall and Gibbon Street. New building is planned for the corner of John Street.

The proposals will go before the Plymouth City Council Planning Committee next month following a consultation with staff, students, residents, partners and other stakeholders.

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[Unsafe As Houses]

A lot of universities are building or expanding their halls of residence in the last few years - I guess they want a bigger chunk of the student accommodation pie. Good news for us I think since it should hit the profits of slumlords.

[porca misèria]

Hence all those HMOs coming on the market. Buy a six-bed for what you thought was a two or three bed price.

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=184106&st=73

[RufflesTheGuineaPig]

A lot of universities are building or expanding their halls of residence in the last few years - I guess they want a bigger chunk of the student accommodation pie.

Correct. Especially as they will get better treatment from the planning dept. It's an easy win for the unis as they often have lots of spare land around the campus too. I expect the halls pay for themselves in a few years. If you put in 800 rooms on land you already have, you can easily rent them at £300 a month. That's 3 grand a year. 2.4m a year total income.

[Unsafe As Houses]

Correct. Especially as they will get better treatment from the planning dept. It's an easy win for the unis as they often have lots of spare land around the campus too. I expect the halls pay for themselves in a few years. If you put in 800 rooms on land you already have, you can easily rent them at £300 a month. That's 3 grand a year. 2.4m a year total income.

I'm joining a University based in Canterbury and they have bought up land around the town centre in the last few years and have built substantial student accommodation amongst other things.

[@contradevian]

Correct. Especially as they will get better treatment from the planning dept. It's an easy win for the unis as they often have lots of spare land around the campus too. I expect the halls pay for themselves in a few years. If you put in 800 rooms on land you already have, you can easily rent them at £300 a month. That's 3 grand a year. 2.4m a year total income.

They are nearer £400 a month where I live, but are bills inclusive including internet. Less money for the slumlords, as has been said and also for the parasitic letting agents, charging massive fee's on shared AST's is all good.

[SarahBell]

Didn't student numbers just drop off a cliff?

[stevemo]

Didn't student numbers just drop off a cliff?

Bournemouth University's applications fell by 15.2% and the applications for the Arts University College Bournemouth fell by 19.2% this year (source Guardian). I don't know how this translated into actual intake though. I do know from friends who have put children through university, that many of them have hated the shared house experience, so I can quite believe that availability of good purpose built accomodation would be a big factor in choosing a Uni. Student numbers are projected to fall further in the coming years as the number of 18 -24 year olds in the population declines, so Uni's will have to raise their game and compete with each other to fill courses. Bournemouth have, in common with other towns, built lots of purpose built student accomodation, and from what I've seen, it is good. I can't help thinking that E - Learning will come along, and further reduce the numbers having to live away from home at a University, after all, video conferencing is now mainstream in the workplace, where I work, if I try to book a company pool car or rail warrant to attend a meeting, I expect to be questioned closely about why I need to travel rather than use the video conferencing suite (this change has happened in anger over the last 2 years), further education may well go the same way.

[RentingForever]

Surely it's in students' best interest to go through university in crappy, badly maintained, expensive shared housing paying rent to a slumlord?

It will prepare them for how they'll have to live for a decade or so once they graduate into an economy with no jobs and a housing crisis, and with a debt of £40k to pay off.

[Ruffneck]

Bournemouth University's applications fell by 15.2% and the applications for the Arts University College Bournemouth fell by 19.2% this year (source Guardian). I don't know how this translated into actual intake though. I do know from friends who have put children through university, that many of them have hated the shared house experience, so I can quite believe that availability of good purpose built accomodation would be a big factor in choosing a Uni. Student numbers are projected to fall further in the coming years as the number of 18 -24 year olds in the population declines, so Uni's will have to raise their game and compete with each other to fill courses. Bournemouth have, in common with other towns, built lots of purpose built student accomodation, and from what I've seen, it is good. I can't help thinking that E - Learning will come along, and further reduce the numbers having to live away from home at a University, after all, video conferencing is now mainstream in the workplace, where I work, if I try to book a company pool car or rail warrant to attend a meeting, I expect to be questioned closely about why I need to travel rather than use the video conferencing suite (this change has happened in anger over the last 2 years), further education may well go the same way.

flim-flam - they will just fill local shortfall with foreign students.More ca$h there anyway.

[Gigantic Purple Slug]

Didn't student numbers just drop off a cliff?

Yes ... but ....

Student accomodation has always been oversubscribed. Although some students want the "young ones" experience, the majority I think would prefer to stay in on site accommodation, itsd a known quantity and much less hassle than moving off site.

My guess is that even if student numbers drop by 10% across the board, it will be the local landlords that lose the 10%, not the universities having empty space.

There are some additional advantages to keeping students on site as well. The more you keep them on campus, the more they will spend there rather than outside.

[Gigantic Purple Slug]

Correct. Especially as they will get better treatment from the planning dept. It's an easy win for the unis as they often have lots of spare land around the campus too. I expect the halls pay for themselves in a few years. If you put in 800 rooms on land you already have, you can easily rent them at £300 a month. That's 3 grand a year. 2.4m a year total income.

Students have pretty low expectations as well. Small room, small ensuite shower and toilet. Communal kitchen. Plus you can build vertical on that land, most student accommodation I've been is at least 3 floors. No parking in general (students aren't allowed cars on most campuses). Can cram those places in.

My guess is the universities are so desperate for cash they will probably lease out blocks of land for external businesses to build on.

[untakenname]

I went to plymouth uni a decade ago and had the choice in the first year of living in the university first year student flats which were tiny, expensive and opposite a massive police station or paying less than a third of the rent to live in a 5 bedroom house which was around a ten minute walk away from uni.....

After drinking I always had people back to mine due to the noise limits and smoking rules. Most students couldn't wait to get away from the university accommodation due to a combination being micromanaged and tiny rooms/communal areas.

The second year I lived in a place called mutley which was about 10-15 minutes walk away from uni and the rent was £60 per week while the student flats nearer were £150+ a week for the same size rooms.

[Tired of Waiting]

800 new student flats planned by Plymouth University . (...)

Good news. The more housing the better.

I wish all Unis did that. It would free-up many family houses for err families.

Many university cities have very expensive housing due to students.

And student accommodation shouldn't be restricted to 1st year students only.

[porca misèria]

The second year I lived in a place called mutley which was about 10-15 minutes walk away from uni and the rent was £60 per week while the student flats nearer were £150+ a week for the same size rooms.

£150/week in Plimuff will get you a regular 2-3 bed house. Today! Not in the lap of luxury, but regular mid-market.

I suspect that was a monthly rent for a room. In fact I recollect doing the rounds of the agents[1] on Mutley Plain[2], and the one that specialised in student lets (Chris Shorey) told me they wouldn't take on anything above £35/week, which is in line with £150/month.

You must've been the disgustingly rich student.

[1] This being before the days of Rightmove and Zoopla.

[2] Plimuff's big centre of estate agents.

[winkie]

It is good that more universities are providing accommodation for their students throughout their university life....why can't they also see to it that students can also have the choice of studying from home at the same university?

[Snugglybear]

Correct. Especially as they will get better treatment from the planning dept. It's an easy win for the unis as they often have lots of spare land around the campus too. I expect the halls pay for themselves in a few years. If you put in 800 rooms on land you already have, you can easily rent them at £300 a month. That's 3 grand a year. 2.4m a year total income.

Er, make that £5,000+ for 41 weeks. Plus the income from hiring the rooms to tourists and for conferences for the other 11 weeks.

[houses-do-my-head-in]

Surely it's in students' best interest to go through university in crappy, badly maintained, expensive shared housing paying rent to a slumlord?

It will prepare them for how they'll have to live for a decade or so once they graduate into an economy with no jobs and a housing crisis, and with a debt of £40k to pay off.

+1 pearls of genius

[Gigantic Purple Slug]

It is good that more universities are providing accommodation for their students throughout their university life....why can't they also see to it that students can also have the choice of studying from home at the same university?

As a student a long time ago the university was happy to accept home living students. I can't imagine the situation has changed. AFAIK universities don't discriminate against people because of where they choose to live, be it on site, off site rented or at home.

Most students do want to live away from home though. Firstly because they want independence and secondly because integration into the university life is easier that way.

[stevemo]

flim-flam - they will just fill local shortfall with foreign students.More ca$h there anyway.

But what will the foreign students expectations be as regards housing?. Will they expect the Uni to provide accomodation, or will they be happy with a shared house?. Does anyone know how other countries house University students, do they have privately rented shared houses, or specially provided/tailored accomodation?. If they do have shared houses, what is the quality like compared to ours?.

[Gigantic Purple Slug]

But what will the foreign students expectations be as regards housing?. Will they expect the Uni to provide accomodation, or will they be happy with a shared house?. Does anyone know how other countries house University students, do they have privately rented shared houses, or specially provided/tailored accomodation?. If they do have shared houses, what is the quality like compared to ours?.

Foreign students IME prefer university accommodation. The transition to the UK can be daunting enough without having to deal with landlords, bills etc.

Expectations are largely set by the universities themselves. They compete against each other. Standard from the conferences I have been to in the UK is a small room, maybe 2x or 3x the size of the bed (don't know what this is in sq ft), a desk, internet connection and a en suite toilet, sink and shower. Communal kitchen with personal cupboards and communal freezers/cookers.

Most students don't expect much more than this and are OK with it. Landlord owned accommodation can be highly variable, but is often poorly maintained (because its only students and they will wreck the place anyway). This wouldn't be so bad if it was just the paintwork, but often its fundamental things like the shower leaking into the downstairs rooms. Of course the landlord knows that if he can delay the repair the students will only be in there for one year anyway...

There are of course advantages and disadvantages. I lived out for 2 of my three years and it was a great laugh. But the house was a disgrace and queuing up for the bathroom in the morning misery. Organising the bills/responsibility was always a hassle, and it was a pain getting back on site.

[Unsafe As Houses]

Average cost of all university halls accommodation and nearby private rentals, amongst other things such as graduate salaries by university and course studied, can be found at the link below.

This is the Key Information Set (KIS) website designed to give propspective students information about universities to help them decide where they want to study:

http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/

For example, for the 2011/2 academic year, the University of East London charges between £4,100 and $4,300 per annum for halls (and has 1170 bed spaces) and private rentals per annum in the surrounding area are apparently £3,500 to £4,800 per annum

This website is new - I think it it will be interesting to see changes in these values in coming years (i.e. increase in bed spaces).

Not sure on the reliability of the private sector rental data though - my university just estimated (i.e. made it up) and surprisingly came up with a very low range :angry:

Edited November 11, 2012 by Unsafe As Houses

[okaycuckoo]

after all, video conferencing is now mainstream in the workplace, where I work, if I try to book a company pool car or rail warrant to attend a meeting, I expect to be questioned closely about why I need to travel rather than use the video conferencing suite (this change has happened in anger over the last 2 years), further education may well go the same way.

Just wondering what the bolded part means - in anger?

[stevemo]

Just wondering what the bolded part means - in anger?

Just a phrase really, I'm just saying that the facility was there previously, but no - one really enforced it's use as an alternative to travel until more recently.

[LeeT]

Unipol Student Accommodation survey 2012/2013