StuRents Listing Views: Past Year Trends and Year-on-Year Changes

On the StuRents website, when a student searches for properties and clicks on one to view more information, we call this a ‘listing view’. We’ve taken a look at the data for these listing views over the past two years to see what students have been looking for, and how this might have changed.



Key findings of the past year (October 2023 to September 2024)*:

• Domestic students are viewing HMOs at a mean price of £150 per person per week (pppw), and £175 pppw for PBSA (data excluding London)
• Around 68% (one standard deviation) of domestic student views fall in the £102-198 pppw range for HMO, and £111-239pppw for PBSA
• Asia-domiciled (China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea) students are viewing HMO at a mean price of £178pppw, and £234pppw for PBSA
• Around 68% (one standard deviation) of Asia-domiciled student views fall in the £94-263 pppw range for HMO, and £154-315pppw for PBSA

Key changes from 2022-2023 data*:

• Domestic students are viewing HMO and PBSA at higher price points, with more views above £150 pppw and £200pppw respectively
• Asia-domiciled students are also viewing HMO and PBSA at similarly higher price points, with more views above £200 pppw

* Prices are inclusive of bills, and rounded to the nearest £10.

Chart 1: Split of PBSA and HMO for domestic students, 2022-23 (inner) and 2023-24 (outer)

Source: StuRents

Over the past year of listings, from October 2023 to September 2024, domestic students have once again shown a strong preference for House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) over Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA), with HMO now accounting for almost 80% of all views. This is up from the previous year, October 2022 to September 2023, where just under 73% of all listing views from UK students were HMO.

Chart 2: Distribution of PBSA and HMO views by price for domestic students, 2023-24

Source: StuRents

For domestic students, who are favouring HMO, the viewings tend to be at lower price points than for PBSA. The mean listing price for HMO is £150 pppw, with most views clustered around this mean; approximately 68% of views fall within the £102-198 pppw range. Notably there is a spike at £150 and £160 pppw, indicating that these may be popular price points for domestic students looking for HMO beds.

PBSA on the other hand are typically viewed at higher price points with a mean of £175 and a broader distribution - approximately 68% of views fall in the £111-239 pppw range. While the minimum of the range for one standard deviation is similar for PBSA as for HMO, the PBSA distribution has a longer tail - suggesting that students are also interested in more expensive accommodation in this category.

Chart 3: Split of PBSA and HMO for Asian students, 2022-23 (inner) and 2023-24 (outer)

Source: StuRents

Asian students, who have historically shown a stronger preference for PBSA, have seen a significant shift in the past year. HMO and PBSA now have an approximately equal share of listing views. This sharp change from the 2022-2023 to 2023-2024 period reflects a notable trend: Asian students are gradually shifting away from PBSA over recent years.

Chart 4: Distribution of PBSA and HMO views by price for Asian students, 2023-24

Source: StuRents

For Asian students the general trend is similar to domestic students, with HMO viewings at lower price points than PBSA. The mean price of viewed HMOs for Asian students is £178 pppw, with a more dispersed distribution, resulting in approximately 68% of views falling into a £94-263 pppw range. This suggests that Asian students are open to HMOs at a wider range of price points compared to domestic students. Similar to domestic students, there is a notable spike at £160 pppw, suggesting this is a generally popular price point.

With PBSA, the mean search price was £235 ppw with a tighter spread, as around 68% of views were in the £154-315 pppw range. The skewed distribution, with a longer right tail, suggests students are also considering more expensive accommodation.

As expected, Asian students tend to view more expensive properties than domestic students. For example:

• ~61% of HMO views are above £150 pppw for Asian students, compared to ~42% for domestic students
• ~60% of PBSA searches by Asian students are above £200 pppw, while only ~16% of views by domestic students are above this price point

Chart 5: Percentage point change in listing views by price for domestic students, comparing 2022-2023 and 2023-2024

Source: StuRents

Comparing the past two years of HMO listing views for domestic students, there has been a drop in view of beds below £150 pppw, with demand shifting to the £150-240pppw price range. The £160 price point has seen the largest percentage point increase, with positive increases diminishing as price rises. Below the £80pppw and above the £240 pppw price points, there has been little year-on-year change in listing views.

PBSA listings views for domestic students are showing a less consistent pattern in year-on-year change. However, there has been a marked decrease in listing views for properties in the £150-190 pppw range. Below £150 pppw there have been mixed increases and decreases, while above £190 pppw listing views are slightly up year-on-year.

Chart 6: Percentage point change in listing views by price for Asian students, comparing 2022-2023 and 2023-2024

Source: StuRents

Looking at Asian students we find a similar pattern for HMO, where views of listings below £190 pppw have dropped and demand picked up on higher-priced properties. However, the year-on-year trend is in contrast to that of domestic students, with percentage point change gradually increasing to a peak at £240 pppw - where it drops. Below £130pppw and above the £240pppw there has been little change in year-on-year listing views.

PBSA changes for Asian students have been mixed but follow a similar pattern to HMO listing views. Below £190 pppw views have dropped, and this demand picked up on higher-priced properties. The trend here is similar to that of HMO listing views for Asian students. Percentage point change gradually increases from £190 pppw to a peak at the £240 price point, after which it drops. For listings below £150 pppw and above £240 pppw, year-on-year changes are generally mixed and less than 1 percentage point.



For more information about our proprietary, highly granular data covering UK student accommodation contact the StuRents Research team today. Or book a demo of our Data Portal to find out how you can have up-to-the-minute university housing insights at your fingertips.