House hunting for academic year (2023-2024) in Bradford commenced on 6th February 2023. To date since house hunting started 6,107 searches have been carried out on the Bradford website with 9,367 advert views taking place, however some of these could have been made by late arrivals for the January 2023 intake, rather than just students looking for the April intake and September 2023/24 academic year.
March saw 1,089 searches and 1,727 advert views made, this shows an invcrease of 200 searches on last years figures. April had 1,016 searches carried out and 1,485 advert views, higher than the previous year. There were 995 searches and 1,698 advert views in May. June saw 1,102 searches with 1,756 adverts viewed. To date Juy has seen 921 searches and 1,562 adverts viewed.
As before some of these will be from students already in Bradford who are looking to leave a short term accommodation. We are seeing a steady stream of students coming to the Housing Hub looking for family accommodation, and September intake students are not starting to make enquiries.
The University of Bradford International College (UBIC) received around 35 students for their April intake. These were mostly individual students who did not bring dependents with them initially. They expect around 700 for September intake.
It is expected there will be a slighty smaller intake of international postgraduate students for September compared to the previous 2 years. The estimated figure is around 1,800 to 2,000.
Most students will not receive offers or visas until late July, August or September, so are unable to start their housing search yet. Given the recent changes to the banking form A in Nigeria and the fact that the University now requires a 50% payment upfront, this may impact on the amount of studnents now arriving from that country.
First year students without firm offers will need to wait until August results before they can start looking for accommodation. UBIC are expecting around 500 students for their pre- masters courses.
As many of the students currently living in Bradford student accommodation are postgrad students only studying for 1 academic year, this means there is less chance for retention of tenants than in previous years. Those who managed to find family suitable accommodation are unlikely to move out at the end of their course, so properties are no longer becoming vacant at the end of each academic year, causing a further reduction in available properties.
Unipol held a landlord briefing at the University on 16th March. This was attended by landlords, College and University staff and Bradford Council Environmental Health and Housing Standards Team. The discussion was based around market trends, University statistics and current issues within the student accommodation sector. There have also been, and will continue to be, ad hoc training courses for landlords throughout the year.
We have also had a presence at all open days/evenings and experience days, I am holding webinars and Q&A sessions with the University, and will continue to take part in these throughout the year. Student Union will be holding another virtual housing fayre in August in conjunction with Unipol.