Student Accommodation Research: Q1 Search Behaviour
Q1 Search Behaviour
The StuRents Q1 Quarterly Reports are now available!
Every quarter, the research team at StuRents compiles reports for 46 university cities and towns across the UK, plus a national report for the UK. In Q1, a key section of the reports explores changing student search behaviour and price points students consider. The insights are based on data from searches made by students on the StuRents platform, mainly focused on the period October 2023 - December 2023.
Search distribution
Source: StuRents Limited
The chart shows the proportion of searches made for each bed size in Q1-2024 and the prior quarter. This gives key insights into student housing preferences and market timings.
The data shows that larger sizes grew in popularity in Q1-2024. This is in line with the expected behavioural trends as domestic students looking for HMOs make up the majority of searches at the start of the new lettings season.
HMO Listing Views
Source: StuRents Limited
The chart shows the average price of HMOs being viewed on the StuRents platform over time.
The price point of viewed HMOs continued to rise and was 9.1% higher than the same period last year.
This increase conflicts with the announced 2.5% increase in maintenance loans, compounding the impact on affordability for students.
PBSA Listing Views
Source: StuRents Limited
The chart shows the average price of PBSAs being viewed on the StuRents platform over time.
Similar to HMO pricing, there is a clear upward trend in PBSA prices. Year-on-year (YOY) PBSA prices were 5.2% higher for the same period.
The price changes for PBSA are more volatile than HMO, possibly as a result of operators implementing dynamic pricing. However, most operators will find it difficult to capture this or implement it efficiently at scale.
Source: StuRents Limited
The chart shows the average price of listing views made on the StuRents platform for PBSA properties by Chinese students each quarter. The labels show the relative increases YOY.
The effect of international (in particular Chinese) students searching later in the cycle can be seen in the data as this causes the prices to rise.
The data shows the ability for a Chinese student to stretch their budget is high, with growth of 8.3% for Q1 2024.
StuRents' Quarters
Recently our Head of Research, Richard Ward, was joined by Brodie Berman, Senior Acquisitions Associate at Fusion Group, and TONG Partner & Client Services Director, Gabriel Nicklin. The three discuss key trends in the student accommodation sector. Based on research from our quarterly reports and our unique, proprietary data, they explore:
- Demand growth per demographic, as revealed by this year's end-of-cycle statistics from UCAS. Read more.
- Changing student search behaviour and the price points students have been considering, as described above.
- Updates to market supply and the supply pipeline. Read more.
- Booking velocity across key market locations. Read more.
We also asked our audience for their thoughts on some interesting market developments, the results of which can be viewed here.
A recording of the webinar is available to view here.
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Article by
Research Analyst at StuRents
Aisling Murphy is a research analyst in StuRents’ research division, StuRents Intelligence.
