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14/7/25 8:13 pm
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The Government has been warned that its refusal to give student landlords an exemption from plans to scrap fixed-term tenancies will see the university housing sector collapse.
Some 250 letting agents who rent homes to students have told a survey by software provider Alto that disrupting the traditional student tenancy contract model must be urgently rethought.
The system to date has worked well. Because students can predict fairly accurately when their tenancy will start and end, contracts are usually a minimum of 12 months, usually secured in advance of the next academic year at the end of the previous one before students leave for their summer holidays.
But the Renters’ Rights Bill will sweep this system aside, making all tenancies open-ended by default and enabling tenants to give notice within two months of moving in.
While this gives traditional long-term tenants more power and safety of tenure, this will severely disrupt how student HMOs/shared houses are rented out.
A third of the letting agents polled believe this will ‘blow up’ the student rental sector
A third of the letting agents polled believe this will ‘blow up’ the student rental sector while other reported landlords already pulling out of the market.
Alto says there is deep unease among agent and landlords over the changes and that, although the Government has given student landlords additional eviction powers within the reform bill to provide some certainty, agents are worried that open-ended contracts will see students quit tenancies at short notice once the new tenancies are brought in, leading to considerable void periods.
The poll reveals that 20% of agents report landlords already pulling out of the student market, another 10% said landlords are actively reconsidering and a further 10% have been advised their clients to ditch student lets altogether during the past year.
“This is a sector built around predictability and the Renters’ Rights Bill rips that up,” said Riccardo Iannucci-Dawson (pictured), CEO at Alto.
“It’s not just landlords who lose. If student lets become unworkable, young people will have fewer affordable options and more uncertainty around their housing.”
And while some students are turning to Purpose-Built Student Accommodation, which is exempted from the Renters' Rights Bill, agents warn it’s no substitute for the thousands of flexible, affordable HMOs provided by independent landlords.
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