Student demand boosts university town house prices

Property owners in university towns and cities are seeing house prices soar up 65% higher than those of similar homes in the surrounding area due to demand for student housing.

The biggest price increases are in smaller cities and towns that have had a huge growth in student numbers.

Lloyds TSB compiled the figures for 70 university locations across the UK for the past five years from a comparison of the Halifax house price index and government student data.

The report shows 42 (60%) of the university towns and cities enjoyed massive house price growth as their local higher education facilities expanded – but property owners in the big cities failed to share in their good fortune.

The top 10 student locations with prices above their local region for the period are:

In contrast, house prices in 10 of the larger university cities are much lower or have even gone down:

“Growing student numbers have had a big impact in boosting house prices in some university towns – where the increase in demand has led to the local market out performing the rest of the region,” said Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Lloyds TSB.

“It’s a mixed picture for some of UK’s largest university towns that have seen student population increase significantly without impacting on house prices. In the past five years, population across the university towns in UK has increased by nearly a million students. Naturally, this has boosted demand for property and land to provide suitable accommodation for students.”

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