Students locked out: What Lettings Agents Need to Know about the Student Housing Squeeze
The first semester of university should be one of the most carefree and exciting times of your life...
You meet new people and are exposed to new cities and surroundings. It seems as if you shouldn’t have a care in the world. However, when the eat, sleep, party and repeat nature of Freshers’ Week draws to a close, reality sets in.
Finding student accommodation after halls
From the period of September until November of their first year students have to fight tooth and nail in order to gain appointments to see properties, often only weeks after arriving in a new town and with people they barely know. Due to the limited amounts of private rental properties available students are often left with no other choice but to queue outside letting agents waiting for them to open in order to book viewing appointments.
I've heard first-hand from many course-mates about how cold they were while waiting for the letting agents to open their doors. In fact, it’s not uncommon for students to ‘camp out’ in order to secure a decent place in the queue - with a disproportionate number of students v’s the number of properties available, and even fewer lettings agency staff to serve them.
Lettings Agents are flooded with enquiries
With such an influx of students looking for accommodation in the period between September and into Christmas, letting agents often struggle to manage the volume of enquiries. This means that the process of listing properties, responding to questions, arranging viewings, and processing applications slows down significantly. This can lead to delayed and prolonged processes both to secure housing and also reducing the support available for students who for the most part are already grappling with the reality of being away from home for the first time.
Another big issue is the Renters Rights Bill which is being implemented to attempt to improve the security and quality of living for those looking to rent. The bill however means that only properties with three or more bedrooms will be exempt from the proposed fixed contract. This means that an estimated 32% of student accommodation will be impacted by the bill, which applies to 1 or 2 bed properties such as the one that I stayed in during my second year. This would in turn drive up prices for the remaining properties.
The letting agents are going to be faced with new procedures and an increase in administrative tasks to do. It's likely that letting agents will also see an uptick in enquiries from students surrounding the Renters Rights Bill. Potential renters will be looking for clarity and reassurance when assessing where they want to live - adding to the volume of enquiries that agents have to deal with.
The impact on student studies
This uncertainty can lead students (like myself) being placed in stressful situations. The uncertainty of not having a place to live can lead to anxiety, disrupted study routines, and negatively impacting wellbeing. This is also often the first time for many spending an extended period of time away from home and the stress may be compounded on top of pre-existing feelings of isolation.
These negative experiences could potentially have a knock-on-effect on the students' academics. If students begin to experience bouts of anxiety there is a possibility that they will begin to miss lectures and seminars which cause them to fall behind.
High enquiry numbers impact service quality
Many of the tasks that consume so much of the Letting Agent's time are responding to enquiries, such as: booking appointments, and answering questions about whether the property is furnished, are bills included, etc. Simultaneously the agents have to deal with numerous menial tasks which are priorities for their existing tenants such as maintenance problems and queries about tenancy contracts.
The high volume of these queries conflicts with the small number of letting agents available and causes a backlog of enquiries waiting to be resolved. This is particularly worrisome in cases such as mould, which according to research by NUS Wales is an issue that up half of students have had to deal with. Heating problems are also commonly an issue in student housing with up to 87% of students reporting failures in heating which can lead to distressing living situations and possibly health complications if not dealt with.
All these issues impact the mental health of students that live in these properties with 48% of students reported feelings anxious or depressed due to prolonged periods of cold due to heating failures. These are realities that almost every student faces at least once during their university experience and they are situations that transpire due to the high volume of requests to the limited amount of letting agents and employees.
What can Lettings Agents do differently?
There are a number of things that can be done to address these challenges and serve student customers better. Firstly, letting agents could improve property descriptions on their websites. Details such as contract length, rents, whether or not bills are included and the amount of deposit to be paid up front is fairly standard information that renters want to know which could be listed clearly on the website. Prospective tenants will undoubtedly email or call to enquire about these details, therefore having them clearly listed takes away the need to answer these questions - plus, agents could even consider how customer service automation might help, responding to enquiries and even answering emails. This would frees up more time for the letting agents to deal with more urgent matters.
Secondly, providing a streamlined application process would save both the letting agents and the students time. The introduction of an automated system which could handle viewing appointments would help increase the response time to students looking to rent a property. This would decrease the uncertainty for students as they’d not have to wait around for an email letting them know if they had been successful or not in their application.
Lastly, provide a communications system that aligns with expectations of the audience, it needs to be quick, effective and easy to use. Students would rather message a chatbot who will reply instantaneously than be on hold on the phone for half an hour. An intelligent chatbot would be able to answer any of the frequently asked questions and give students more insight to any of the properties listed, at a much faster rate.
Conclusion
Hopefully agents in busy university towns will begin to take the necessary steps to solve the problems that students face both in terms of procuring a property and then also managing any maintenance queries once they move in. The introduction of the Renters Rights Bill, and the likely impact on manual processes is a good opportunity for businesses to consider where technology like automation can help them - and with increasingly intelligent chatbots becoming available it would be good to see how AI can help by answering questions, booking viewings - and hopefully reducing the need for students to camp outside their door. One thing is certain, these issues need to be resolved, as there is only one thing which brings more misery to university students than finding accommodation - and that's 9am lectures!
Guest Authored by Maximilian Lagerborg
Max is a 2nd year student studying for a BA in Marketing at Oxford Brookes University.
Learn more about AI and Automation for Residential Lettings Agents.
References
- NUS Wales. (2025). 58% of Welsh students are skipping meals due to rising accommodation costs.
- www.sos-uk.org. (n.d.). Homes Fit for Study - Research | SOS-UK.
More blogs
