University expansion drive collides with UK student housing shortage
Queueing overnight outside an estate agent was not what Saphyne Husain expected from her Durham University degree. But on a drizzly evening last month she waited 12 hours to secure a flat.
“There’s been a lot more pressure to get a house sooner . . . They’re going so quickly,” said the second-year music student, whose monthly rent will increase 70 per cent next year. “I hate to say it, but the university is taking too many students,” she added.
Expansion in the UK university sector has collided with a shortage in rental housing, leaving hundreds of students such as Husain struggling to find digs. The squeeze on housing layered over a cost of living crisis is making it more difficult for some undergraduates to live in university cities, threatening the growth of the higher education sector.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Bethan Staton
