The first six months of the Renters Rights Act: what impact on student housing?

This blog has been kindly written for HEPI by Martin Blakey, a commentator and adviser on student living and housing and formerly Chief Executive of the student housing charity Unipol.

The summer of 2026 and the student intake for 2026/27 has seen a significant change in demand for student accommodation. Overlaying this is the initial impact of the Renters Rights Act (2026) with a number of its main provisions being implemented on 1 May. The last six months reveal important changes in the student accommodation market. So this is a good time to give an overview as to what has changed.

1 May 2026 implementation of the Renters Rights Act – what changed?

As an aide memoire, it is worth recalling the significant tenure changes that affected student renters which came into force on 1 May 2026. The changes in tenure abolished assured shorthold tenancies and created periodic tenancies that:

• swept away fixed-term contracts;
• allowed students to give two months’ notice to terminate their tenancy; and
• restricted paying rent up front to a maximum of one month.

These changes applied to all student renters, except those renting from or through a university.

Those renting Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) from a private provider were exempted from these changes (so long as the provider was signed up to a Government approved Code) for any agreement that was signed after 1 May 2026 when this provision came into effect. Those students who signed an agreement before that date were subject to most of these new provisions in what is known as the transitional phase.

During the passage of the Bill, the Government accepted the importance of maintaining the availability of student accommodation in line with the academic cycle (which they based primarily on the undergraduate year) and landlords were allowed to give notice to their tenants which would stop them staying in their accommodation as long as they wished. This notice is known as Ground 4a and carries several detailed conditions in order for the notice to be valid.

Ground 4a only applies to student Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) which generally house three or more unrelated persons. Ground 4a does not apply to one and two-bed flats or houses where there are less than three sharers. Ground 4a also applies to all PBSA accommodation during the transitional phase, otherwise those renting, studio or two-bed flats would have been able to stay as long as they wished and that would have inevitably have meant non-students staying in flats that had specific planning conditions saying this was student-only accommodation.

In an attempt to stop students renting very early in the academic year, Ground 4a will not apply to contracts entered into more than six months prior to the tenancy start date.

The summer of 2026

These changes in tenure and tenants’ rights have coincided with a continuing shift of demand in the student housing sector. The effect of these shifts will vary across individual universities and cities, but some points are nevertheless clear.

A) While undergraduate acceptances increased by 1 per cent (and within that international undergraduates were up by 3 per cent), the pattern of intake that has been prevalent over the last four years continued into a fifth year, with higher-tariff universities continuing to increase their intakes at the expense of lower-tariff universities who are taking fewer students. One-third (33.5 per cent) of students attended higher-tariff universities in 2022 and this has risen to 40.5 per cent in 2026. Those attending lower-tariff universities have declined from 33.0 per cent of students to 26.4 per cent. The proportion of those attending medium-tariff universities has remained fairly constant.

This has had the effect of changing the distribution of students across institutions and has been reflected in shifts in demand for accommodation. In some multi-university cities, declining intake in a lower-tariff university may have been offset by an expanding high-tariff university, but in towns and cities with only a single lower-tariff university that drop in demand for accommodation is significant. In almost all of those towns and cities there has been an increase in unlet student rooms.

B) Greater number of students are choosing to live at home. Looking at the fairly reliable UCAS figures which record the intention to live at home, this has increased from 34.3 per cent of applicants in 2022 to 39.3 per cent in 2026. What is more is that a higher proportion of students studying in lower-tariff institutions are choosing to live at home than those studying in higher-tariff universities – although almost all universities are seeing an increase in their commuter students.

Quantifying this shift is important: if the percentage of students living at home had remained constant over the last five academic years, since 2022, then there would have been demand for an additional 26,580 student beds and it should be recalled that, as an undergraduate studies on average for three years, that first-year reduction in demand rolls forward from year to year, building as it goes. Although the number of home student numbers has increased, most of what might have been additional accommodation demand has been cancelled out by more students living at home.

C) 2026/27 has seen a significant decline in international student numbers. Although precise recruitment figures are not yet available, the Office for National Statistics data on the Home Office’s Sponsored Study Visa Main Applicants is a good indicator of recruitment. Looking at the year to the end of September 2026, there has been a 19 per cent decline on the previous 12 months with 57,000 fewer successful visa applications. The majority of international students study one year postgraduate taught courses and, of course, they all have a need for student accommodation and provide a mainstay demand for PBSA.

This decline is despite the fact that the British Council predicted (in its 5 Trends to Watch East Asia Insights Hub March 2026) that student recruitment to UK higher education should get a boost this year from South Asia and the Trump effect (where F-1 visa grants fell by 36 per cent in 2025 during the key May to August period). 

The new Home Office Basic Compliance Assessment (BCA) from 1 June 2026 seems to be fuelling the downward trend in international recruitment to the UK. The three updated Basic Compliance Assessment (BCA) standards demand that institutions maintain:

• a visa refusal rate of less than 5 per cent;
• an enrolment rate of at least 95 per cent; and
• a course completion rate of at least 90 per cent.

Failure to meet even one of these three requirements could result in sanctions being applied to educational institutions. 

Overall, visa refusal rates for international students have been rising and now stand at 4.9 per cent for the 12 months to September 2026 (Q1 was 2.9 per cent, Q2 was 3.6 per cent and Q3 was 4.1 per cent). But visa refusal rates are much higher for certain countries: Pakistan at 34.2 per cent, Nigeria at 25.0 per cent and India at 9.1 per cent. 

Some institutions, fearing for their Student Sponsor status have hit the brakes entirely on recruiting from important emerging markets and the issuing of CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies by a licensed UK education provider to confirm they are sponsoring a student’s visa application) also fell by 27 per cent to September 2026 compared to the previous 12 months. Again, some falls in issuance are particularly noteworthy with a 57.9 per cent reduction from Pakistan, 37.8 per cent for Nigeria and 36.3 per cent for Sri Lanka.

It is unclear whether the Government, in setting these threateningly high thresholds under the BCA mean it to cost universities (and thus the UK’s exports) around £1.5 billion.

Even with this reduction in recruiting, a reasonable number of universities are likely to exceed the Basic Compliance Assessment standards leaving the government with a decision about whether to apply sanctions to those universities, further driving down the number of international students that will be recruited.

D) The real-term decline in the value of the student maintenance loan continues, falling in value by 20 per cent since 2020. But the real problem is that the full entitlement threshold of household income of £25,000 has remained frozen at £25,000 since 2018 (Martin Lewis, of MoneySavingExpert calculated that had that increased by CPI since, it would now be £43,000). Previous work published by HEPI and TechnologyOne, A Minimum Income Standard for Students, has shown how even a full maintenance loan only covers around 50 per cent of living costs but only a small minority of students receive the full loan.

This continued failure of the student support system is reflected in greater commuting, more part-time work, higher student hardship and pressure for lower-cost accommodation.

E) There is some evidence from student housing suppliers that there have been changes in friendship groups meaning that larger shared houses (HMOs) are now less likely to be let to groups of friends, with many students favouring smaller HMOs or individual lettings within those houses. The days when eight friends turned up to rent a large house may be coming to an end and landlords have to mix and match individuals or smaller sub-groups.

Looking to pay less and the shift from a sellers’ to a buyers’ market

Reductions in Demand

Most towns and cities have seen a reduction in demand for student accommodation and this has shifted the balance of purchasing in favour of the student.

Occupancy data across the PBSA sector, according to the StuRents Occupancy Survey shows how 2025/26 leasing velocity consistently lagged behind that of the two previous years. While bookings picked up considerably in the summer months, it was not enough to close the gap. Across all bed-types in all 25 locations we cover, average occupancy stood at 85.6 per cent as of the end of September. This represents a 5.4 percentage point drop in occupancy year-on-year (YoY). This is a 7 per cent drop on 2023-24.

These changes in demand are quickly reflected in changes to rent levels.

Amber News produced a PBSA Market Update in September, stating ‘Total UK booking occupancy reached 91.9 per cent in September 2026, 2.1 percentage points ahead of the same point in 2025 (89.8 per cent)’ but added that this had been accompanied by significant adjustments in rent: ‘Amber’s pricing analysis shows that PBSA operators      lowered prices for budget options and raised premium category rates against December launch prices, widening-the gap between these tiers.’

There are a few university cities this year (Southampton and Exeter for example) where the supply of student accommodation has been tight. 

There was talk of an ongoing shortage of accommodation at Bristol but the addition of 2,500 private sector PBSA beds absorbed most of that pressure. Although rents remained high (an average rent of £234 a week across all types of accommodation with PBSA at an average of £341, according to Accommodation for Students Housing Pricing Report), there was significant discounting post-July as void levels in these new buildings were set high.

In Liverpool, a beacon of good practice, with both of the larger universities engaging with the local property market and placing a long-term emphasis on affordability, direct rents increased as supply tightened. Again, according to the Accommodation for Students Housing Pricing Report the average rent in Liverpool is now £143 a week which, for the first time ever, sees Liverpool’s average rent at a higher level than that for Leeds (£136).

The London student accommodation market has remained resilient despite the high rents, no doubt indicating that the fall in international recruitment has affected London less than others. One large PBSA supplier was reporting occupancy in their central London portfolio of between 91 to 98 per cent. This perceived resilience has seen private sector investment concentrating in London and the summer of 2026 saw 4,399 new beds coming on line, with a similar number of beds to come in summer 2027. 

It should be recalled, that London has the highest proportion of stay-at-home students within England (estimated at 33 per cent) and that the higher-tariff universities in London have a large number of postgraduates, the majority of which are from overseas. On average, educational institutions and private providers let about half of their accommodation to international students, though private providers tend to have a higher overseas share at 70 per cent or more.

Reductions in rents: shorter lets

In towns and cities with accommodation surpluses, the PBSA letting cycle has slowed, with returning students entering into their tenancies later in the year because they know there are plenty of rooms available, making year-on-year monthly letting figures difficult to interpret. Many PBSA providers, seeing their lettings falling behind previous years either lowered rents or offered substantial initial discounts or gifts to encourage earlier lettings.

In the towns and cities with obvious surpluses (such as Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leicester and Coventry) most PBSA rents either stood still or fell. 

Unite, in its trading update and Q3 fund valuations reported that it had implemented targeted price reductions for 2,000 beds in Nottingham which drove a higher occupancy, resulting in a 15 per cent improvement in income for the city: put simply, it lowered its rent levels and undercut other suppliers. Overall, however, Unite reported only a 0.6 per cent growth in like-for-like income, with a 0.3 per cent reduction in annual rents.

Although headline rents, in the majority of university towns and cities, have tended to see little growth and some reductions, it is also important to remember that the other way students can pay less is to rent over shorter periods and there is considerable evidence that it what they are doing. As international student numbers have declined, accommodation providers have sought to replace that demand from undergraduate students, who rarely require the longer 46 to 51 week lets that could be obtained from international postgraduates. As Unite’s Trading Update reports 

Income growth reflects a shift in sales towards undergraduate students over postgraduates, which has impacted direct-let pricing through shorter average tenancy lengths.

The immediate impact of the Renters Rights Act (RRA) on shorter lets

From 1 May 2026 most student renters have been able to give two months’ notice to leave their tenancy agreements with this right also applying to PBSA providers in the transitional period. 

Earlier this year there were a number of surveys indicating how little private sector tenants, and students in particular, knew about their rights under the RRA 2026. In March 2026 the TDS Foundation in its The Voice of the Tenant Survey Wave 6 reported that 47 per cent of students ‘had never heard of the RRA’ whilst only 18 per cent ‘had heard of it and understood (fully or partially) what it is about.’ This in in line with a number of other surveys completed around that time.

Despite this wider lack of awareness, a considerable number of students gave two months’ notice almost immediately after 1 May 2026 to bring their rent obligations to an end sooner than would have otherwise been the case. In the PBSA transition phase, the larger providers received several thousand notices as students aimed to end their tenancies in July rather than September. In off-street housing, landlords report that many notices were given, shortening tenancies that would previously have ended in September.

It is clear that students intend to use notice periods to lessen their financial obligations. Since student rents are really based on an annual rent, since it is difficult to offset any short periods of voids, these shorter letting periods mean a significant (estimated at around 15 per cent) loss of income. In the longer-term shorter lets will mean higher weekly headline rents, but in the short-term students are getting the benefit from this increased flexibility.

Since 1 May 2026, PBSA and universities have offered common law tenancies and most of these will contain a fixed-letting term. This places those students in a less advantageous position than those renting other types of accommodation. There are already signs that, faced with falling demand and having to rely more on returning home undergraduate students, PBSA providers are beginning to offer either shorter or more flexible student contracts and that some students who might previously have rented PBSA are looking at other types of housing.

Build to Rent (BTR)

Until now, analysing student accommodation has tended to fall into two sectors: Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) and off-street housing or housing in the community. Now a third category needs to be taken into account: built to rent (BTR)

BTR was launched by the government in a Private Rented Sector Initiative in 2009, which marked the first official effort to attract institutional and fund investment into purpose-built rental housing. Since BTR started to be constructed, students have always had a presence in those buildings, but as the sector has grown student occupancy has increased it is time to add this as a third category of accommodation available to students.

In December 2024, StuRents discovered that:

it is becoming increasingly clear that competition from other housing sectors, such as Build to Rent, is contributing to the student accommodation supply pool. … the data shows that Build to Rent options stand out for being more affordable while offering larger living spaces (measured in sqm), making these schemes better value-for-money for new and returning students.

The rising cost of PBSA has made many BTR schemes a competitive and lower cost option for students. Post-RRA these BTR tenancies also have the same flexibility and consumer protections as off-street housing with no fixed term contracts, making them even more attractive compared with PBSA.

In the past, it would have been difficult for many students to access what is still a fairly niche BTR market without considerable effort, but recent AI capacity now makes it comparatively easy for students to find this accommodation simply by asking a detailed question about where they want to live and how much they want to pay: the answer by-passes the traditional university and commercial websites and puts potential tenants in direct contact with letting agents.

Those developing BTR have consistently underplayed the role that student occupancy has played within that sector: perhaps because this cuts across the political lens that BTR’s future lies in the provision of affordable family homes. But this underplaying, sometimes stressing that student occupancy is a short-term effect, is now moving into the untruthful denial of reality. 

BTR accommodation falls into two categories, single family homes and multi-family homes. In a report issued by centre for cities and DAC Beachcroft in May 2025 entitled Build to Rent: Patterns in growth and geography, they drew attention to the fact that

Build to Rent is driven by demand from young professionals …16 to 34 year olds are the primary demographic for BTR and this demographic over the past thirty years has shown a strong preference for city centre and urban living. This is reflected in the supply of stock that is provided. Few family homes are provided by BTR – only 6 per cent have three bedrooms …

Most multi-family BTR properties are studios or 1 or 2 bed flats with 86 per cent in apartments.

The data available from RE:UK who bring out an annual report on BTR shows that it is particularly important for housing stock in large cities and that between 2019 and 2023 it formed 16 to 22 per cent of housing stock growth in Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Leicester, Birmingham, Reading, London, Crawley and Brighton. 

It is easy to see why these smaller, cheaper and more flexible units, located in city centres in key university cities, are being snapped up by students. It is also worthy of note that the management model for most BTR provides fewer services than PBSA and is thus lower cost, emphasising a question raised by some policy advisors – is PBSA locked into a high-cost model that an increasing number of students can no longer afford?

It is important to make some assessment of the number of students this third BTR sector is now housing. Data from RE:UK  can be difficult as they tend to quote units delivered, in construction and with planning permission together, but some estimates nevertheless can be made. 

Looking at London, the average size of a multi-family unit is 1.55 bedrooms. London has 64,724 completed multi-family units, so at that level of occupancy they house around 100,000 people and students form 32 per cent of those so just over 32,000 students are housed within BTR. In his HEPI article in late 2024 David Tymms showed that there were around 100,000 PBSA beds (both private and institutional) within London, so BTR now houses students equivalent to 32 per cent of the entire PBSA sector.

Outside of London there are just over 85,000 completed multi-family units and using the same formula and the fact that 30 per cent of these are occupied by students, this gives a total of around 30,000 students living in BTR. There are around 580,000 institutional and private sector beds in the UK so BTR is about 5 per cent of the existing PBSA supply. Nevertheless, BTR beds are increasing faster than PBSA outside of London and are concentrated mainly in the cities indicated above. In those cities, particularly for students looking for one and two bed flats, BTR is attractive and can cost less than existing PBSA and smaller well-located off-street properties.

Future Impact of the Renters Rights Act (RRA)

Some of the immediate and short-term effects have already been covered but one of the key concerns about the RRA has been the effect on housing supply – will landlords be deterred from investing, shrinking the supply and increasing rents? A clear answer to this may never be forthcoming because it is difficult to disentangle the RRA from tax changes, increased borrowing costs and the state of the market more generally and in the student market there is the additional impact of reducing demand and the redistribution of that demand across different institutions and locations.

Will the overall rented sector start shrinking?

A recent briefing from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, What’s really happening to the size of the private rented sector?, neatly summarises changes in the private rented sector.

They found the sector grew by around 45,000 homes between 2021 and 2025 and, although that was substantially slower than the growth seen between 2005 and 2015, it was still growth rather than decline. Many individual landlords are selling (and the proportion of landlords saying they intend to sell has risen significantly) and HMRC figures show the number of individual unincorporated landlords fell from 2.91 million in 2023/24 to 2.88 million in 2024/25.

But the most important JRF finding is that the structure of the rental market is changing with rental property ownership becoming more concentrated among larger and incorporated landlords. 

Most of the data JRF used runs from 2024/25 and they acknowledge that, if the sector started contracting during 2025 or 2026 that may not become visible in official stock data until future releases.

It is, however, likely, that the protracted run-up to the RRA saw smaller landlords who wanted to sell-up doing so before the Act actually came into force, so post RRA the shift may be less significant.

Stability in overall rented supply does not mean, however, that the housing crisis has in any way come to an end. All analysts agree that there is an insufficient number of homes overall available for residential use relative to housing need and that unmet housing demand and affordability pressures are real and pressing policy issues. The reduction in student housing demand noted here runs counter to the general housing needs of the UK as the population continues to increase and households become smaller because of an ageing population.

Is the student housing sector particularly vulnerable to supply changes?

Although the overall rented sector may be fairly stable, sub-sectors within that market may change significantly and that could be the case with students. It should be recalled that when MHCLG undertook its Impact Assessment of the Renters Rights Act, it faced widespread criticism, including from the Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC), who argued the assessment was too broad and failed to analyse the impact that the Act might have on specific sub-sectors adequately, including student housing, the Build-to-Rent (BTR) market and smaller landlords.

For students, it is likely there will be a reduction in the supply of non-HMOs, either because student tenants will stay on taking that stock out of the academic cycle or because, if a student leaves mid-year, why would a landlord incur void periods, when they could just rent almost immediately to other rental groups? Some of that stock may be replaced by BTR, but generally BTR is unevenly distributed around the UK so there will never be a like-for-like replacement.

This reduction in the supply of one and two bedroomed properties (non-HMO stock) will affect different housing markets differently depending on the balance of this kind of housing relative to HMO shared student housing. 

Off-street student stock is almost certainly shrinking – it cannot expand because of planning restrictions (the use of Article 4). Student stock is likely to shrink most where there are competing letting markets: Airbnb or professional renting as in Manchester, Brighton, York, London and Bristol. 

Where the letting cycle slows or there is a reduction in demand, then the more forward-thinking landlords are likely to convert larger HMOs to self-contained flats in order to be able to let that stock in a more flexible manner. There are many examples of this happening, but it is worth quoting from a LinkedIn post from Pickard Properties (a large family property company based in Leeds with significant interests in off-street student HMOs, PBSA and general lettings):

 Headingley has long been one of Leeds’ most popular    student communities. But as housing needs change, there is an opportunity to broaden the choice of homes available and enable more professionals and families to   make the area their home too. We are initially looking to convert four carefully selected larger student HMOs into high-quality, energy-efficient apartments, building on the £450,000 transformation of 187 Kirkstall Lane.

It is about investing in existing housing stock, reducing occupation intensity where appropriate and creating a more balanced mix of homes for people at different stages of their lives.

… and that is how it will happen.

PBSA will not replace lost off-street stock. The pace of development is slowing, down by about 50 per cent since 2022 and the last three years have added only around 45,000 beds nationally. The pipeline continues to slow and is likely to dry up by around 2028. Unite’s CEO was recently quoted as saying that at current development costs, new schemes need annual rents of approximately £12,000 to £13,000 per bed to be viable. Very few locations outside London would support those rent levels.

Will the traditional letting cycles change?

In respect of tenure changes and their on-going impact, it will be interesting to see whether students rent later because of the restrictions placed on ground 4a repossession and, again, it may be difficult to disentangle this from students being able to rent later and over shorter periods because they are now often in a buyer’s market.

There may be an increasing disparity between the PBSA and off-street lettings cycles as one letting cycle is marketing earlier because of the fear of voids whilst the other gets later – but students are probably sufficiently savvy to not respond to early letting in PBSA, unless it is made worthwhile for them by inducements and discounts.

There is a view that off-street landlords letting shared student houses would adjust their letting cycle so that students paid rent earlier, rather than later, in the cycle. A recent BBC article summarised this neatly, quoting a landlord who rents three shared houses to students in Norwich who ‘is worried about the changes.’ She:

says she doesn’t want to put up her prices, if her houses end up being empty over the summer because students decide to end their tenancy after their final exams she says   she may have to. She has already brought forward the start of her tenancynagreements to August instead of September to try and reduce the risks of this.

Problems relating to joint tenancies and the complexities of giving notice and the impact that has on other co-tenants have yet to be experienced. Some see the RRA as a missed opportunity to get rid of joint tenancies in HMOs altogether.

Will the use of guarantors grow?

The maximum forward-rent payment period of one month will increase landlords’ fears of default and students, who often have little or no credit history, are particularly vulnerable to that fear. The use of guarantors is likely to increase to reduce risk. This could be throughout the private sector, but is likely to particularly affect student lettings. 

There is a particular problem using guarantors where there are joint tenancies. Joint tenancies are commonly used in off-street shared student housing. In student joint tenancies it is easy for parents to unwittingly guarantee the rent for the whole house (effectively underwriting liabilities for people they do not know), unless they cap their guarantor level to their own student’s rent (as if they were on a single tenancy). Again, the RRA was a lost opportunity to get rid of guarantors for over 18s.

If the use of guarantors grows (and it is already prevalent) it could result in locking-out certain student groups from renting accommodation: international students; those leaving care and those with no parents or estranged from them. 

Although there are now a number of specialised rent guarantor services (guarantor insurance, and policy protection schemes to secure private or shared accommodation) these all add to the cost of renting and cost between 5 to 10 per cent of the annual rent, although these rates can be substantially discounted if operated through a university partner. Even so, guarantor insurance has the effect of turning a free underwrite from a guarantor into a certain cost for insurance.

Before the RRA most students paid their rent termly but students renting off-street houses will now need to budget for monthly rent payments and some may find themselves unintentionally running into debt. Advice on budgeting and paying rent when due will be increasingly important.

Will deposits rise?

Student deposits may rise: the maximum permitted deposit is five weeks’ rent and that is in general use throughout the private rented sector. Students have mainly paid around £200 to £300 which is less than that. Student deposits may well increase to reduce perceived rental default risks. 

Student deposits have historically remained relatively low because raising the entry costs to student housing can deter some students from renting at all. As the student housing market comes under less pressure with fewer students looking for housing this may counteract any attempt to increase deposits.

Can landlords find loopholes in the Act?

There are already some examples of landlords trying to let on licences rather than tenancies, claiming that those licences fall outside of the provisions of the RRA. This cleverness is unlikely to be successful and was tried before in the 1980s to avoid the rent control system that operated at that time. A landmark case, Street v Mountford in May 1985 (heard by the then House of Lords) brought an end to this kind of ‘loophole’ tenure by making it clear that if an agreement granted exclusive possession of a property for a term at a rent, it created a tenancy in law, regardless of whether the paperwork labelled it a ‘licence’. 

The call in Street v Mountford for courts to be vigilant as to ‘sham devices’ used to disguise the grant of a tenancy has survived the obsolescence of the Rent Acts and still provides courts with a strong basis for continuing to uphold protections for residents in tenant-like situations.

Policy implications

There are, of course, matters that the Government should consider:

1. The Basic Compliance Assessment seems to have resulted, perhaps unintentionally, in a significant reduction in international recruitment. The standards set for educational institutions may well have looked reasonable in May 2025 when they were set, but they fail to reflect the increasing tightening of visa acceptances that have occurred since then and they are now over-rigorous and need revision in line with the general acceptance levels currently being granted by the Home Office. The Government could also seek to reassure universities that it was not their intention to frighten them off from recruiting in emerging markets by setting specific thresholds for certain countries, rather than an ‘across the board’ figure. The Government could also offer some reassurance on sanctions that might be applied to institutions perhaps stressing that exceeding the thresholds would not result in sanctions unless clear abuse or significantly poor performance had occurred.
2. The Government are committed to evaluating the Renters Rights Act and have commissioned Verian (a global company with around 100,000 employees who specialise in working with governments on data-driven social policy research) to undertake that evaluation. Although the Government’s primary concern is likely to concentrate on the Act’s overall effect on housing supply, it is important that any evaluation looks at the specific issues that relate to student housing which forms an important sub-sector of the private rented sector. That evaluation should look at any changes:

• in the overall supply of student accommodation but particularly the supply of smaller non-HMO properties, where the academic cycle has not been maintained because ground 4a does not apply;

• in respect of rental income received by landlords to determine whether shortened letting periods has a cost to either tenants or landlords;

• in the student letting cycle, has the pre-RRA cycle remained broadly unchanged or are lettings happening later in the year as was the legislative intent;

• in increased student deposit levels ;

• in the use of guarantors together with any implications for students trying to access the rental market;

• in shifts of student occupancy towards build-to-rent or co-living schemes; and

• in the level of student homelessness as a result of increased cost or increased barriers to accessing renting.

3. .Historically, as security of tenure improves for tenants, there has been a tendency for illegal evictions to increase. To what extent is the monitoring of illegal eviction taking place in order that the Government can address any new provisions to protect tenants’ rights?
4. To what extent are bodies exempt from the RRA and members of the Government-approved National Codes reflecting any enhanced flexibility in the tenure they offer and using significant up-front rental payments and/or insisting on guarantors to the extent that these are restricting student access to renting their accommodation.
5. Students’ unions have so far done an excellent job of informing students of their new rights under the Act. That effort will need to be on-going and will involve monitoring and reporting on any significant changes to their local rental market to those undertaking the Government’s evaluation of the Act. Universities and their students unions should offer support and help to students where landlords are seeking to evade their obligations under the RRA by seeking to use sham agreements and should work together nationally to report on a ‘national register’ of such attempts.

Conclusions

The big conclusion is the fall in demand for student accommodation is squeezing accommodation providers and rents are not increasing as they have done previously. There are a few exceptions where student housing shortages or development opportunities exist but mostly these are in London where the home student market is only about 50 per cent of the total. 

The significant falls in international recruitment and the growth of commuter students is sufficient to see PBSA having to pivot to more returning undergraduate lets and these often have lower rents over shorter periods of time.

Students, realising the rights they now have under the RRA are taking action to reduce their rental outgoings and they have done that mainly by either giving notice to shorten their tenancies or are entering into shorter fixed-term PBSA common law tenancies. In some cases, they have realised that BTR can be a better cost option and has all the flexibility of an off-street letting.

In the short-term, the RRA and the changes in student accommodation demand, have given students considerably more consumer power in what they buy and how much they pay.

This short-term pro-student consumer power is likely to fade as supply levels, particularly in non-HMO off-street properties, start to fall. 

It will be interesting to see how students this coming year use their ‘buyer’s-market’ position to negotiate a better and lower cost deal for their housing, how housing suppliers react to falling yields and how many years this student market-advantage lasts.