Protesters take to streets as rental accommodation crisis bites students

Single bedrooms available for rent at £1000 per month.

A teenager camping outside an ­estate agent’s for three days in order to be first in line for any rental put on the market.

Online forums full of desperate pleas for somewhere – anywhere – to live.

Students told not to enrol for ­courses if they can’t find ­accommodation.

Hundreds expected on a march today to protest against the cost and availability of places to rent.

This is the reality for students in Scotland in 2023 as rents ­rocket due to the shortage of suitable ­accommodation.

It is a crisis that has been building for years as demand outstrips supply and it is in St Andrews, one of the most expensive places in the UK in which to be a student, that today’s protest is being held.

The Campaign for Affordable ­Student Housing (CASH), which is organising the march, claims that more than 400 students were unable to find accommodation in the run-up to their courses starting and many have since dropped out or are ­having to travel from Dundee and towns in Fife.

“It is a pretty desperate situation,” said spokesperson Barry Will. “The rents are phenomenal and there has been a real crisis. One student camped outside an estate agent for three days in an attempt to get ­somewhere and there are bedrooms being rented out for £1000 a month.”

Elsewhere in Scotland there is a similar picture.

PhD student Elliot Napier counts himself lucky as, after being unable to find anywhere to rent, he is able to cycle from the family home in Carntyne to take up his studies at Glasgow University.

“As a PhD student in my mid-30s it is not ideal to be living in my mum’s spare room, but the cost and ­unavailability of housing is just nuts,” he told the Sunday National.

After weeks of logging on to ­property sites at 9am only to find the prices were “insane”, he gave up ­trying to find a place nearer the ­university.

“I saw a studio flat advertised for £950 a month where the bathroom was not even in the flat,” he said. “I asked for pictures and the agent prevaricated – clearly the place was a hole – but it was taken within hours of going online.

“Anything that had a semi-reasonable price – like a one-bed far out from the centre – was going for £700 or £800 a month. I would email about them and get an reply by noon saying it had gone, so people were obviously taking anything without even viewing.”

Napier added: “I know students in a flat that are paying twice the rate the regular rent would have been because the landlord has decided to go Airbnb rather than rent it as a student flat. They said he thinks Eurovision will come to Glasgow and he will make more in a week than he would over a whole term.”

While it is not just students who are affected by the cost and availability of rental accommodation, they claim the universities are contributing to the problem by offering places to more students than can be accommodated. They also claim the prices universities charge for student flats inflate rents in surrounding areas.

A spokesperson for the Student Tenants’ Union at Glasgow University, which last week made the news after telling students not to enrol if they did not have accommodation, said that the problem had to be addressed or the crisis would only get worse each year.

“These issues have not just ­started recently and if the ­university ­recognised this they would be ­making more effort to expand their halls,” said a spokesperson. “This is ­something that has been left to grow for years and is now even worse because of the cost-of-living crisis.

“Some people are ending up near homeless. We helped people last year that were living on couches.

“Other students are paying ­thousands of pounds but living in buildings not fit for purpose. Some cases are genuinely shocking because of the negligence letting agents have shown regarding repairs.”

As well as the protest march today, St Andrews students have begun a petition calling on the university, Fife Council and the Scottish ­Government to act together to end the housing ­crisis.

They want the university to ­limit student numbers until there is enough housing capacity and are ­calling on the Scottish Government to review purpose-built student ­accommodation by next March, with recommendations for action by the end of the year, as well as ­providing funding to ensure emergency ­accommodation can be provided.

The petition is also calling on Fife Council to lift a ban on Homes of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) in St Andrews for the academic year as well as look at designating the area as a rent pressure zone.

A spokesperson for St Andrews University said: “We sympathise greatly with the stress students have reported flat hunting in a housing environment that is more highly ­pressured than ever. In St Andrews this year this is related to a wider lack of properties available in the private rental market for reasons ­entirely ­beyond the university’s control. ­Several of these factors are common to university towns and cities across the country.

“It’s important to stress that all our undergraduate entrant students have been offered accommodation, in line with St Andrews’ longstanding ­guarantee, and that all ­undergraduate returners who had applied to the university for accommodation or ­assistance have been accommodated, thanks to a lot of hard work by our residences team. We currently have no undergraduate students on any housing waiting lists.

“There has been no significant change to our student numbers this year compared to last. The accommodation squeeze this summer is almost entirely due to changes in the private rental market in Scotland.”

The spokesperson added that rent levels were set in consultation with elected student leaders and were ­“significantly lower” than those charged by private landlords.

“We also have a comprehensive bursary and support system to help individual students with accommodation and living costs,” said the spokesperson. We will continue to work on accommodation challenges in the year ahead, recognising the stress students can encounter, and lobbying for changes to local and national policies which impact housing provision and rents here and elsewhere in Scotland.”

Fife Council’s housing spokesperson Councillor Judy Hamilton said: “Balancing the housing needs of ­everyone who wants to live in St ­Andrews has historically been a major issue for the town, and we’ve looked at many different ways of managing these challenges over the years. We will work with the university to see how best we can help.”

A University of Glasgow spokesperson also blamed “a significant contraction” in the private rental market.

“Like most urban universities, we cannot guarantee accommodation for returning students,” he said. “As part of our efforts to address the issue, we have increased the number of rooms under university management by 25% for this academic year. There has been no significant increase in student numbers for this year.” He said the university was continuing to engage with private providers and with local government on issues with the city’s private rental market.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government is committed to delivering a student accommodation strategy for Scotland that will be, in part, informed by a review of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA). The review will look at a number of issues, including supply and affordability.

“The PBSA review research report has now been received and will be considered by a review group, with recommendations being submitted to ministers later this year. We will also deliver a fairer, more affordable private rented sector through our New Deal for Tenants.”