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Students make great tenants

To many of us, student houses conjure up visions of filthy kitchens piled high with dirty dishes waiting to be cleaned, house parties that leave the place looking like a war zone, or the venue for a 365-day festival of slovenly living. But things have moved on since we were at university, and an increasing number of landlords are turning to the student market for what they reckon are excellent tenants and high returns.

New research from the Joseph Rowntree Institute claims that private landlords are confident of their ability to profit from letting property to students, who make reliable tenants that usually pay their rent on time. Landlords also benefit from the fact that more rent can be generated from renting the rooms in a house out to students than would be the generated by renting a similar house out to a family.

The student population of this country has now reached 1.6 million as the entire higher education system has been expanding for several decades. Almost a half of this student body lives in privately rented accommodation, meaning a market for landlords that has grown significantly. 60 per cent of university housing policy officers agreed that students' reliance on the private rented sector had increased. The second most common reason given was that their institution was unable to provide enough accommodation to cope with the influx of new students.

The drop in dependence on college and university campus accommodation has not meant an end to the student community. In fact the opposite is true, with whole areas in university towns and cities being bought up by landlords in search of a share of the spoils. Students cluster in these areas, often for the social life as much as the transport links or proximity to the university, leading to areas being dubbed 'studentsville', or 'Studentown'. Many landlords in such areas would be unwilling to let to other social groups.

However, there are some university towns that landlords are not really setting their sights on, Many of the universities established in the 1960,s were built along the lines of the self-contained campus, meaning that drastically fewer students are being housed in private rented accommodation. Full details of which university towns fall into which bracket can be obtained by purchasing the full report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.