Surplus student accommodation has prompted the owners of one block in Coventry to submit plans to turn part of it into two HMOs.

The owners of Fortress House in Corporation Street have applied to create one 16-bed HMO for 21 people on the third floor and one five-bed HMO for five people on the fourth floor, Coventry Live reports.

The upper floors are currently restricted to students but there has been persistently low occupancy, according to the agents. The other floors will be set aside for students only while they would still be able to move into the third and fourth floors if a surge in demand meant more rooms were required.

Richard Morgan, from IC Planning, says Brexit and Covid has hit international student numbers and meant Fortress House has experienced persistently low occupancy levels from students, which is not sustainable in the long term.

Positive

He adds: “Importantly, the proposal would make a positive contribution to meeting local housing need without impacting upon existing family housing stock. The HMOs are intended to cater for young professionals and graduates seeking centrally located accommodation close to employment, services and transport links.

“Repurposing existing student accommodation in this manner represents a pragmatic and sustainable response to changing market conditions, ensuring that the building continues to address housing need rather than remaining partially vacant.”

A recent petition to the council urged it to reject a proposal for further purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) and cited the authority’s report on the city which has previously confirmed it faces one of the most significant oversupplies of student accommodation in the county.

Alone

However, Coventry is not alone as according to analysis by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), PBSA occupancy fell to about 85% in 2025-26, down significantly year-on-year and well below the 95–98% occupancy levels many schemes were designed around.

Along with fewer international students, there’s been an unmistakable shift towards more full-time students choosing to live at home. Some councils probably hoped that new PBSA would allow older student HMOs to return to family housing but now some PBSA operators are discounting rents to fill rooms while older student HMOs are struggling to compete.

HEPI reports that in Nottingham, demand for first-year undergraduate accommodation has fallen from a Covid peak in 2022-23 of 46,295 beds to 42,290 beds in 2025-26. At the same time supply of PBSA beds has increased by over 7,700 new beds - accounting for 13.8% of all new build beds in the UK over that period.

However, back in 2024, the Midlands council was trying to get more students living in purpose-built student accommodation instead of traditional HMOs by approving a plan that aimed to “help balance communities” by promoting purpose-built blocks.

Photo: Google Streetview

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