Occupancy Update – June 2026

We’re now moving into the pivotal summer months of the PBSA leasing cycle, and this update explores how the market has progressed through the end of June, analysing booking trends, year-on-year performance, and seasonal patterns by bed type. The survey continues to provide the most comprehensive view of UK PBSA leasing activity available, capturing around 50% of the private PBSA direct-let market and offering valuable insight into current dynamics across all major student accommodation markets.

StuRents Occupancy Survey includes private PBSA direct-let bookings only. University halls and private beds on nomination agreements are excluded.

Source: StuRents Occupancy Survey

The above is showing how 26-27 is continuing to track closely with that of 25-26 after a period of slightly lagging behind. Across all bed types in all 28 locations we cover, average occupancy for 26-27 stood at 59.1% as of the end of June. This represents a 0.4 percentage point increase year-on-year (YoY).

Source: StuRents Occupancy Survey

This chart shows how the YoY gap in occupancy has evolved throughout the cycle so far for both cluster beds and studios. The clusters gap switched from negative to positive in May, moving from 1.5 percentage points down in April to 0.8 points up, and sits at +0.6 points in June. Meanwhile, the studios gap has narrowed for the fourth consecutive month, officially crossing into positive territory in June at 0.1 points ahead of last year.

Source: StuRents Occupancy Survey

Looking at monthly momentum in cluster occupancy, May was the standout month for the 26-27 cycle, adding 9.0 percentage points - a strong departure from the 6.8 points recorded in May 25-26. In the latest data for June, gains moderated to 7.3 points, closely matching last year’s June performance (7.5 points) as booking growth begins to level off into the summer.

Source: StuRents Occupancy Survey

For studios, June recorded a stronger month-on-month increase than the equivalent period last year (8.9 percentage points versus 6.7) and was the strongest month for growth since November. This contrasts last year’s pattern, where growth slowed going into June, whereas this year momentum continued to build.

Source: StuRents Occupancy Survey

The chart above compares end-of-May occupancy across the 28 survey locations, alongside the national average. Performance continues to vary considerably, with occupancy levels ranging from 79.8% in the highest-performing location to 36.4% in the lowest. These wide disparities reflect the differing supply and demand conditions that exist across local accommodation markets in the UK.

Overall, leasing performance for 2026-27 is tracking closely to last year and continues to lag earlier cycles. However, as always, the devil is in the detail, as dynamics can vary significantly when the data is broken down by bed type and/or location.

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.