StuRents’ 2023 Annual Report now available

Every year, the StuRents Research team delivers our Annual Report. With over 750,000 beds listed on our platform, StuRents is the UK's leading student accommodation search platform. While developing our report, we extract millions of data points and analyse them in detail to provide a comprehensive overview of the key insights from the student accommodation sector in the past year, and forecast upcoming trends. 

On 19 October, our Head of Research, Richard Ward, was joined by fellow industry leaders and report contributors to share these key insights in our Annual Report webinar. They discussed:

• The latest changes in supply and the impact of planning delays on new stock delivery.
• Rental price trends and their effects on PBSA occupancy.
• Student search preferences and how they're reshaping demand.
• The challenges and opportunities in the student accommodation sector.

You can watch the full recording, here. 

2023 Annual Report key findings 

The student lettings cycle for 2024-25 season has already started 

In some cities, the 2024-2025 season has already started - the earliest StuRents has ever seen. There is a clear trend towards earlier house-hunting, across both HMO and PBSA. This trend is likely to be a reaction towards the local and national press coverage, which has highlighted the many challenges students are currently facing when looking for suitable accommodation.

Rents are up by more than 10% year-on-year for both HMO and PBSA

As supply is currently not able to keep up with rising demand, it is no surprise that rents are continuing to rise. The average HMO now costs £122pppw, while the average PBSA costs £184pppw. Unfortunately, maintenance loans are not increasing at the same rate. For 2023, maintenance loans in England grew by just 2.8%, which is well below the current level of inflation. 

Student search budgets grew on average by 7.3% in 2023-24 to £152pppw

In response to rising rents, students across the UK have been forced to increase their search budgets for accommodation. For the 2023-24 cycle, the average maximum search budget across all demographics and all accommodation types, excluding London, was £152.09ppppw. Long-term trend forecasts suggest that the market will see further increases.

PBSA delivery continues to slow

Due to the slowdown in planning and the increase in debt costs, delivery of PBSA has stalled. Around 12,000 new beds were ready in time for the 2023-24 cycle, down from more than 36,000 in 2019.

Download our 2023 Annual Report 

Want to dive deeper into more granular insights from the student accommodation sector? Download our full 2023 Annual Report, today.