Students in Manchester are facing a ‘dire’ housing crisis

New data by StuRents has revealed Manchester University has more students than places to live.

 StuRents, a student property search site, has discovered there are 4,000 more students than there are rooms available in halls of residence and across the city.

The student property search site displays there is a 7% gap between the number of students and accommodation available and states the crisis ‘is only going to get worse.’ 

Research was undertaken by Students as in September some first-year students were offered over £2k by the University of Manchester to give up their room in halls of residence. 

Despite offering freshers an ‘accommodation guarantee’, Manchester University provided 157 students with £2,500 to live off-campus as they were 350 rooms short.

As well as not being able to find a place to live, research by the property expert has displayed that four in five newly built student rooms cost more than the average student loan.

Michael Rainsford, Co-Founder of StuRents has said ‘The state of the student housing market in Manchester is dire. There is a huge shortfall in supply that is only going to get worse – which is pushing up prices for students.

‘Maintenance loans are supposed to cover your living costs, including food and utilities. Yet they are being completely eaten up by rent – forcing students to turn to second jobs or their parents to get by.

‘It shouldn’t be allowed that students apply to a university only to be told that they’ll be living in a neighbouring city and commuting in – as happened in Manchester this year.

‘The delivery of new student properties has been slowing – partly due to rising construction costs and low availability of sites – which has worsened the problems.’

The northern city is currently home to two universities – both with large populations. Currently, the University of Manchester has around 40,000 students and Manchester Metropolitan University has roughly 32,000.

Photo by Fraser Cottrell