June Occupancy Update

The 2025-26 private PBSA booking cycle has been a tougher journey compared to those in recent memory. With the industry unsure of whether occupancy rates will be genuinely low due to a fall in demand, or just slow due to a shift in booking seasonality, having accurate and reliable data has become essential for operators and investors alike. Here we leverage the latest data from StuRents’ Occupancy Survey, revealing a market showing some green shoots of recovery.

Source: StuRents Occupancy Survey

While the above chart shows that booking velocity for 2025-26 has been consistently low compared with previous years, progress has been relatively steady after a particularly slow winter period. The performance gap between this year and last had widened month by month, reaching a low point of -11.7 percentage points in May. However, June’s data is more positive, marking the first month in the cycle where the gap has narrowed - to 10.54 points. Whilst the spread last year was narrower, it also closed at the end of the cycle, a trend which could still occur this year too.

Source: StuRents Occupancy Survey

Breaking down year-on-year performance by room type, the trends are broadly the same, albeit with the drop-off of studios being more pronounced than that of cluster beds. While both room types have picked up, it is studios that have had two months in a row of improvement, narrowing the gap from -14.4 points in April to -12.8 points in June.

Source: StuRents Occupancy Survey

Looking at which months of the cycle have had the biggest gains in cluster occupancy, the chart above shows that June was the best month of the cycle so far, and the first month to outperform its 2024-25 equivalent. This improvement could signal the first signs of a recovery, although this trend will need to continue to ensure the year-on-year spread narrows.

Source: StuRents Occupancy Survey

Looking at the same chart but for studios, a clearer pattern emerges. In 2024-25, month-on-month performance generally trended down after a large early spike, picking up again in the last few months of the cycle. 2025-26 is almost the inverse of that so far - steadily trending up after the initial spike, with the last two months bettering that of 2024-25.

Source: StuRents Occupancy Survey

As always, booking velocity varies widely when comparing locations, with the above chart shows a sample of five cities from the 25 locations we cover in the survey. While this shows that some locations are as much as 20 points ahead of where they were in 2024-25, the majority are either underperforming or about breaking even.

Source: StuRents Occupancy Survey

Looking at the same sample of cities, but instead focusing on month-on-month occupancy gains, performance does not necessarily line up with how things are going year-on-year. Those locations struggling compared to last year are still having strong upticks MoM, with cities 3 and 4 having stronger June’s this year compared to last. This further highlights how seasonality may have shifted in this cycle.

For more information about our proprietary, highly granular data covering UK student accommodation contact the StuRents Research team today. Book a demo of our Data Portal to find out how you can have up-to-the-minute university housing insights at your fingertips, or get in touch with us about our Occupancy Survey.