Following the success of the HEPI/Unipol 10 report Student accommodation costs across 10 cities in the UK, Unipol is conducting an additional piece of research for 2024, focusing on the London student accommodation market to track costs and rent setting since the last full edition of the Accommodation Costs Survey (ACS) in 2021. The ACS is a longitudnal dataset that analyses trends in the provision of student accommodation and its cost, and captures the strategic direction and key issues facing student accommodation providers in the UK. Unipol is delighted to be partnering with the Higher Education Policy Institute once again for this project.
London has been selected specifically as it was a notable (but purposeful) omission from the 10 City Rent report, due to it’s unique student accommodation market and significantly higher than average rent levels compared to the rest of the UK. Given the prospect of increasing rent levels in the capital, coupled with only a 2.6% increase in the levels of state maintenance loan support for students, Unipol is looking to understand whether these rent levels will impact on access and participation in London-based Higher Education, particularly for UK Home students.
This research will also aim to inform the growing policy debate of student maintenance loans, and evidence the risks to the UK HE residential experience if concerns regarding the funding system are not addressed.
Speaking on the upcoming proejct, Paddy Jackman, Chief Executive of Unipol said:
“According to the UCAS website London is one of the world’s most cosmopolitan and fashionable cities, where the word “boredom” doesn’t exist”, and yet it is increasingly becoming inaccessible to a significant number of students due to accommodation costs. Following on from our 2023 Ten Cities Rent Survey, this report will focus exclusively on London in order to highlight the funding gap that exists for many students and limits access to the capital’s many higher education institutions.”
Nick Hillman, Director of Higher Education Policy Institute also commented:
"London was recently declared the best city in the world to be a student - for the sixth year running. However, the student experience in the UK capital can sometimes split between the haves and the have-nots and, if we are to tackle such a divide, we need good data to understand the underlying challenges. This survey will deliver that."
Scope
This research will focus specifically on the London region, and act as a standalone piece in within the Accommodation Costs Survey series. This dataset will be comparable with future full editions of the ACS, as it will follow the same formatting and collection method.
The survey aims to collect annualised rent figures for the following academic years to allow direct tracking since the 2021 ACS:
- 2022/2023
- 2023/2024
- 2024/2025
The research will follow the typical ACS methods of a rent return and a qualitative online questionnaire so that the data is as comparable as possible with previous and future years. However, the reporting format will be re-imagined to provide more commentary from key external stakeholders with expertise in the London market.
Timeline
| Early July |
Survey Piloted and Launched |
|
July - August |
Fieldwork commences |
|
Mid - Late August |
Fieldwork concludes |
| End August |
Data analysis and reporting begins |
|
TBC |
Report launch event in London |