Student HMO's

General Discussion

I would like to ask any Landlords or agents who have experience in HMO's for student lets what they are seeing in overall demand ? Many cities and towns have seen a large increase in student populations over the last decade or so because of the increase of young people going into higher education (in some form or other) and also the increase of mainly Chinese students coming over. Until Covid hit, these increases seemed to be year on year, but now we are in the second year of the pandemic and I wonder if LL's are seeing student numbers (and thus demand for accommodation) returning to pre-pandemic levels ? The big boys seemed to be throwning money into student accommodation with purpose built multi-storey tailor made buildings for students and many smaller LL's saw the student demand and invested in and converted suitable properties for student accommodation. The problem as I see it, is that student accommodation is not really suitable for anyone else but students, as they really are only for short-term accommodation, more akin to a hotel room and certainly not suitable for anyone trying to establish a 'home' and longer term living. This lack of flexibility makes student lets very vulnerable as they rely so much on demand in that specific area. So are there now LL's finding it difficult to get tenants for student HMO's ? Is there any access to reliable information on student populations year on year available ?