Soaring Student Rents Push College Accommodation To Brink Of Crisis 25% Increase In 3 Years

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/aug/15/soaring-student-rents-college-accommodation-crisis

Half of Britain’s students are struggling to pay their rent as spiralling housing costs prompt warnings that the university accommodation system has reached breaking point. As the last-minute scramble for accommodation for the next academic year gets under way, the National Union of Students described the cost of housing as at an absolute crisis point.

“Students are facing a housing crisis with an ever-narrowing gap between their incomes and what they are expected to pay in rent,” said Shelly Asquith, the NUS vice-president of welfare. “There needs to be enforced rent controls to put an end to this.”

Between 2010 and 2013, rents rose 25%, according to the student housing charity Unipol. This compared with rises in the wider rental market over the same period of 13%, according to Homelet. The latest Unipol data, to be published in November, is expected to show further rises of around 7%.

Well when you are given bigger loans prices go up. The solution is to give undergrads even bigger loans to cover the costs. Of course one solution is go to the University in your home City, that would cut costs significantly.

[Save me from the madness!]

A better solution is for universities to build accommodation the undergraduates need rather than want. I'm talking about basic rooms with bed, desk, sink and wardrobe, communal showers and kitchen for groups of 20 plus students. This is what i had in 1999, it wasn't glamorous but it was cheap at about £30 a week term time only. Now my old block no longer exists but lots of fancy (read expensive) 6 to a kitchen ensuite rooms exist at over £100 a week. Very nice and modern, but not something in most students interest. When i went to uni they had a mix of expensive ensuite accomdation and basic halls, now there is no choice at my old uni, it is all expensive ensuite.

[davidg]

Socialists call for price controls. Film at 11.

[porca misèria]

Let me guess.

1. A lot of shiny new luxury student accommodation has been built.
2. It's more expensive than traditional run-down digs.
3. Many students are choosing the luxury option.
4. Therefore average prices are rising rapidly.

That says nothing about like-for-like prices, which might even be falling at the unfashionable (run-down digs that have been the norm since students attained the luxury of an own-room) end of the market.

[One-percent]

A better solution is for universities to build accommodation the undergraduates need rather than want. I'm talking about basic rooms with bed, desk, sink and wardrobe, communal showers and kitchen for groups of 20 plus students. This is what i had in 1999, it wasn't glamorous but it was cheap at about £30 a week term time only. Now my old block no longer exists but lots of fancy (read expensive) 6 to a kitchen ensuite rooms exist at over £100 a week. Very nice and modern, but not something in most students interest. When i went to uni they had a mix of expensive ensuite accomdation and basic halls, now there is no choice at my old uni, it is all expensive ensuite.

The reality is that this type of basic accommodation is pushing £100 quid a week - at least that's what my daughter paid two years ago in halls of this type. Moving out into private with a group of friends was cheaper, although it did look like the young one's pad.

[MrPin]

A better solution is for universities to build accommodation the undergraduates need rather than want.

Was pretty basic, back in the day. Not bad though.

[spacedin]

Well when you are given bigger loans prices go up

Um ... No... The size of the loan has nothing to do with the cost of accommodation which is obvious when you consider that sometimes the loan (which is supposed to cover all living costs) doesn't even cover the rent.

It's OK though if you have rich parents, some of which will have sent their kids to boarding school so university accommodation is probably cheaper for them.

In regards to purpose built blocks it's the reliance universities have on foreign students to bring in billions of extra income that's been increasing rents as it means every room must have in suite and be up to a very high standard.

[nnails]

i went to univeristy 20years ago. My fees where paid and i had grant which covered my digs.

I dont regret going but my course could have been done 1 year instead of 2 the amount of free time i had. I had computer course at universtiy and when i found a job after i found a lot of the stuff i was taugh was useless and not used. But as 18 kid you just do waht you think this is best. I know now finding a job in something close to what i wanted to do and university would have been much better .

my advise to kids now.If you are an average student. Try and find a job first in somethng you would like to do., if not then go to university the nearest one to parents home so you dont have to pay digs and get a job in the lots of spare time you will have .

I would never have gone to university now. To much money to risk

[StainlessSteelCat]

A better solution is for universities to build accommodation the undergraduates need rather than want. I'm talking about basic rooms with bed, desk, sink and wardrobe, communal showers and kitchen for groups of 20 plus students. This is what i had in 1999, it wasn't glamorous but it was cheap at about £30 a week term time only. Now my old block no longer exists but lots of fancy (read expensive) 6 to a kitchen ensuite rooms exist at over £100 a week. Very nice and modern, but not something in most students interest. When i went to uni they had a mix of expensive ensuite accomdation and basic halls, now there is no choice at my old uni, it is all expensive ensuite.

University built accommodation nowadays has a eye to hosting summer conferences and other short term lets. Plus I suspect foreign students prefer, and can afford, the expensive stuff - at least judging by the huge amounts of designer gear they are wearing/carrying shopping bags for.

There is a massive expansion in university accommodation in my local town. Seriously, it must be adding around a third to a half on top of what they've already built and the artist drawings make it look the size of a decent village. I can see the local private letting market being absolutely decimated.

[Saving For a Space Ship]

The answer again is Dutch - like shipping container villages ?

http://www.tempohousing.com/projects/keetwonen.html

Edited August 17, 2015 by Saving For a Space Ship