The average price of student accommodation in the UK has jumped by nearly a third in the last six years, with campaigners warning of an affordability problem.

The increase has been driven by the standard of accommodation shifting steadily upmarket, research by student housing charity Unipol and the National Union of Students found. A big driving force behind the rise in high-end accommodation has come from growing numbers of international students, although it is uncertain if this will continue after Brexit.

The Accommodation Costs Survey 2018 found that in 2011 the average rental bill took up 58 per cent of the maximum student loan, now it is 73 per cent.

It showed that at the top end of the market, studio flats made up four per cent of student accommodation in 2012, but now they account for nine per cent. Fewer people are now living in traditional student digs with shared bathrooms and kitchens. They now account for just 17 per cent of the total, down from 24 per cent six years ago.

The report said half of student bed spaces were provided by the private sector, up from 39 per cent in 2012. The other half are owned by universities and colleges.

Self-catered en-suite accommodation now accounts for the majority of student accommodation in both these sectors, at 58 per cent of total rooms, a rise of two per cent since 2012.

Priced out

This has pushed the average price of accommodation up by a third over the six years, according to the survey. The average annual student rental bill is now £6,366. In London the average is £8,875 and for the rest of the UK it is £5,928.

It is not just the private sector which has seen increasing prices. In Yorkshire and the Humber the average price for university-owned halls is now more than the private sector equivalent.

Victoria Tolmie-Loverseed, assistant chief executive of Unipol Student Homes, said that while it was positive that student housing standards had improved, it was important that students on middle and lower incomes were not priced out.

“It’s not a bad thing that accommodation is nice and getting nicer, but it’s also getting more and more expensive. Eventually affordability for the majority of students will be a real issue.”

NUS vice president of welfare Eva Crossan Jory, said: “The increasing cost of accommodation has created a real affordability problem for students. Rent continues to rise above measures of inflation, but also in proportion to the already inadequate student loan package.”

There was a “responsibility upon the Government to consider not just the financial burden of these costs, but how they present a barrier to accessing education for those from disadvantaged backgrounds”, she added.

By Patrick Mooney, editor