An education and student housing expert has called for a national 'tsar' to ensure the issue of university accommodation isn’t an afterthought in the Renters’ Rights Bill.
Paddy Jackman (main image), of Jackman Education Services and until last year boss of Unipol Student Housing, says that by having a single Bill covering the entire rental market, the very different relatively short-term needs of students have been a last-minute consideration.
“If anything, the Bill has highlighted the fact that student accommodation falls between the cracks of the Department for Education and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government,” he adds.
Writing in Property Week, Jackman says the student possession ground will enable a landlord to regain possession of their property to let to new student tenants, but only between June and September, which reinforces the very traditional academic calendar and doesn’t help those institutions trying to develop courses with mid-year starts.
When fixed term tenancies switch to periodic in the HMO market, students will have the right to terminate their tenancy with two months’ notice, and landlords have several options, explains Jackman.
They could exit the student market, increase rents to offset the risk of increased void periods, bring forward the start date of the tenancy to offset the risk of students giving notice and leaving during the summer term, or do nothing and see what happens.
“The last option is likely to be the case with a lot of landlords so it is unlikely that there will be a cataclysmic change in the market and more an evolution over the next few years,” he predicts.
“However, any decline in the HMO supply and consequently higher rents could lead to an increase in demand for PBSA - but clearly the price differential means that it will only be the more affordable PBSA offering that might benefit. In the longer term, anything that impacts the residential university model cannot be good for PBSA.”
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