Student bookings down

Student accommodation booking so far in 2025 are below that of 2024 in news out this week. The article featured in The Times shows that reservations have fallen in all but three cities across the UK. The data provided by StuRents shows that just 36% of all student room have been rented out so far this year compared with over 46% this time last year and over 51% in 2023.

Whilst the decline has been seen across most cities it has been most noticeably prevalent in those cities where there has been a large increase in PBSA (new build student schemes) such as Sheffield, Nottingham and Coventry.

The slower take-up is bieng blamed on various factors that started to appear a couple of years ago and became a great concern last year as highlighted in on of our latest quarterly reports. These include an increasing number of UK students struggling to afford the ever increasing cost of PBSA. Perhaps a more obvious impact has come from the slowing number of international students coming to the UK study which has been in decline since Brexit. Changes in immigration rules and a declining number of Chinese students as also had a major effect on the market.

The take-up in Liverpool appears to mirror that of the UK as a whole with reservations slightly down on last year, mentioned in comments from Unite (The UK and Liverpool’s largest student landlord) last month highlighting changes in student booking patterns. Saying that Unite still expect occupancy rates of 98% come September 2025. Most experts in the city expert Liverpool’s student market to continue to perform well owing to its affordable student market at a time when value for money is a high priority for many students and their parents.