Lara Reader says her monthly rent was £200 higher than her pupil attraction loan
ByThea Kellock and Andrew Picken
You don't person to locomotion acold successful immoderate assemblage metropolis earlier spotting immoderate signifier of backstage Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA).
These ample blocks of pupil lodging are springing up successful cities crossed the UK, yet rents proceed to soar and young radical studying astatine assemblage accidental they're inactive uncovering it hard to unafraid a spot to live.
The summation successful PBSA has predominantly been driven by backstage companies, with galore developments targeting much affluent planetary and postgraduate students, who manufacture experts accidental are becoming progressively important to the sector.
Developers accidental they are gathering a marketplace request but campaigners reason that they are excessively costly for astir Scottish students and much affordable lodging should beryllium being built instead.
Lara, from Kelso successful the Scottish Borders, was fixed accommodation successful Brae House
Twenty-year-old Lara Reader told the BBC that erstwhile she applied for pupil accommodation astatine Edinburgh University she did not expect to beryllium allocated the astir costly enactment connected her list.
Like galore first-year students, Lara selected from a premix of university-owned and privately-operated halls which cater solely to the city's immense pupil population.
She was fixed a country successful Brae House, 1 of the galore backstage PBSAs successful the city.
PBSAs typically connection en-suite bedrooms and workplace apartments alongside premium facilities specified arsenic gyms, survey areas and societal spaces - but they besides travel astatine a higher terms constituent than accepted pupil halls.
The rent for Lara's country was £1,022 per month, much than £200 higher than her monthly pupil attraction loan.
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Why is determination truthful overmuch pupil accommodation?
Despite it being beyond her budget, Lara accepted the connection due to the fact that of the trouble of uncovering pupil lodging successful Edinburgh.
She said the outgo hung implicit overmuch of her archetypal twelvemonth astatine assemblage and she was "constantly stressing" astir however overmuch wealth she was having to enactment towards rent.
To screen the shortfall, she worked 20 hours per week alongside her studies, a determination she says contributed to her failing her first-year exams.
"I was exhausted each the time," she said. "I conscionable didn't person capable clip to study."
"I deliberation erstwhile pricing pupil lodging they request to beryllium much realistic.
"It makes it truthful hard for students similar maine who don't travel from a ace affluent inheritance to find an affordable spot to live."
The University of Edinburgh said it offered students bully value, crossed a wide scope of terms points, with entry-level rents being good beneath the average.
A spokesperson said: "We promote students to prime accommodation that aligns with their manner preferences and fund passim the exertion process."
How overmuch purpose-built pupil accommodation is there?
Across the UK, a full of 206,005 students told the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) they lived successful private-sector halls successful 2024/25.
This is up from 117,995 a decennary earlier.
The complaint of summation is higher successful Scotland, up from 5,500 successful 2014/15 to 14,640 past year.
The maturation of PBSA has been peculiarly disposable successful Scotland's 2 largest cities.
As of August 2026, Glasgow has 21,655 pupil beds with a further 18,213 successful the improvement pipeline, meaning the metropolis could big astir 40,000 pupil beds if each projected schemes spell ahead.
Edinburgh has besides seen accelerated growth, with the proviso of PBSA expanding by astir 60% implicit the past decade.
A further 5,917 beds were successful the improvement pipeline arsenic of December 2025.
Richard Ward, the caput of probe astatine pupil accommodation selling website StuRents, said the mean outgo of privately-operated PBSA successful Edinburgh and Glasgow is £268 and £243 per idiosyncratic per week (pppw) respectively.
The nationalist mean (excluding London) is £191pppw.
He said: "The rents you're having to complaint are astir £250 to £300 per week to marque a strategy financially viable
"The situation for the assemblage is, astatine that terms point, a batch of home students cannot spend that."
According to manufacture experts, planetary students, who are often amended capable to spend higher rents, are a cardinal portion of the PBSA market.
It's thing Lara, from Kelso successful the Borders, noticed successful her accommodation too.
"A batch of radical I was friends with done my accommodation were planetary students, truthful backing is precise different," she said.
"I deliberation for the astir part, a batch of radical didn't person arsenic overmuch of a conflict paying the rent, but I decidedly cognize a fewer radical who were successful the aforesaid vessel arsenic I was."
Saba said PBSAs felt safer than trying to organise a backstage rental from the different broadside of the world
For galore planetary students, however, PBSA offers reassurance that tin beryllium hard to find successful the backstage rental market.
Saba, an planetary pupil from Pakistan who had planned to survey successful Glasgow, said they felt safer than trying to organise a level from the different broadside of the world.
"I didn't truly cognize wherever to start," she said. "Every state has antithetic laws erstwhile it comes to properties and renting places."
After missing retired connected assemblage accommodation, she considered trying to find a spot done a backstage landlord, however, she says she "encountered a clump of scammers" during her search, including 1 antheral who asked for £500 upfront earlier sending videos of the property.
"As an planetary student, I consciousness similar you're vulnerable" she said
"There are bully and atrocious radical everyplace and the atrocious batch effort to instrumentality vantage of that."
John Boyle said developers were often capable to execute higher returns from PBSAs
John Boyle, manager of probe and strategy astatine property bureau Rettie, said purpose-built pupil accommodation had go 1 of the astir "financially viable" forms of city-centre development, with developers often capable to execute higher returns than from accepted residential schemes, making projects easier to money and deliver.
"The crushed the buildings are going up is due to the fact that different buildings person gone up and person been successful," helium said.
He added that precocious onshore values and improvement costs meant schemes specified arsenic affordable lodging are often hard to present successful premier locations.
Developers besides reason that PBSA helps conscionable request from increasing pupil populations portion reducing unit connected the wider rental market.
Edinburgh and Glasgow metropolis councils some declared ceremonial lodging emergencies successful 2023.
Campaigners reason the accelerated enlargement of PBSA is not addressing the lodging challenges faced by galore students and residents.
Aditi Jehangir, caput of Living Rent Edinburgh, said: "Scotland does not request much unaffordable, poor-quality purpose-built pupil accommodation.
"Purpose-built pupil accommodation is wholly unaffordable and not the reply to the lodging crisis.
"Throughout Scotland's cities, we person seen improvement aft improvement outpouring up, taking up abstraction that could beryllium utilized for much-needed societal housing."
She added that PBSA was "extremely lucrative to developers", did small to conscionable the needs of section communities and that galore units remained empty.
Image source, Richard Ward
Richard Ward said helium was not expecting each the developments successful the pipeline to beryllium delivered
Data from StuRents suggests occupancy rates person fallen successful some Edinburgh and Glasgow.
According to figures from June 2026, astir 49.7% of rooms successful Glasgow had been booked for the upcoming world year, successful examination to 81.8% of rooms astatine the aforesaid constituent successful 2024.
Similarly, Edinburgh figures suggest that 63.2% of rooms person been booked successful the aforesaid period, down from 80.6% successful 2024.
Nationally, 59.1% of rooms had been booked for the upcoming twelvemonth successful June 2026, compared with 70.4% successful 2024.
StuRents' Richard Ward added that the assemblage had experienced a surge successful request from planetary and postgraduate students pursuing the Covid pandemic.
However, helium said maturation successful planetary pupil numbers had slowed, portion caller accommodation continued to travel onto the market, starring to little occupancy rates.
International pupil figures successful Scotland person fallen for 2 years successful a row, with a 5% driblet astir recently.
The largest cohort of planetary students successful Scotland travel from China.
Ward said: "The situation for developers and investors entering into the pupil marketplace is that from the constituent of an exertion being approved to the gathering really being implicit could beryllium 3 years, for example.
"During that clip the section marketplace could person radically shifted."
Because of this, Ward says that pipeline figures bash not needfully construe into completed developments.
"I'm not expecting, by each means, anyplace adjacent the afloat pipeline to beryllium delivered successful immoderate market, but arsenic successful Glasgow and Edinburgh," helium said.
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