Exam grade inflation hits student landlords
STUDENT landlords are facing “voids” of demand in some towns and cities as Covid grade inflation causes a reduction in the number of applicants to lowerranked universities.
Unite Students, the university accommodation provider, said despite a record level of higher education applicants this year, an increase in the number of top grades was distorting the distribution of students across its sites.
The company said: “Unite is sold out in the majority of markets and has significant waiting lists in a number of cities for students struggling to find suitable accommodation.
“However, it has also seen a concentration of voids in cities where it expects universities to have lost market share of students, or which are adjusting to new supply.” According to Ucas data, places given to students at high-ranked universities have increased by 4.3pc, while places at medium and lower tier institutions have both dropped.
Richard Smith, chief executive of Unite Students, said occupancy rates were 1pc to 5pc lower than it had anticipated across its portfolio, due to the disparity in attendance levels between higher and lower tariff universities.
He said: “There has clearly been grade inflation, 44pc of students getting A* or A is up from 29pc in 2019 and that’s a significant increase.
“We have seen higher tariff universities perform well, and the distribution between universities has not been equal because students have got higher grades. We would expect that the Government
will look to manage grade inflation down over the next two academic cycles, I would expect a more normal distribution to return by closer to normal from next year.”
Accommodation providers at lower tariff universities, such as Hull University, have been offering rooms to students at oversubscribed rivals.
First-year students at York University were diverted to East Yorkshire University after a shortage of housing meant students had no place to live. York said it would be remedied by January. Bristol University sent students to Bath.
Unite said year-on-year rental growth was hit as providers at lower tier universities had to drop prices. It said rental growth was up by 2.3pc this academic year compared with a year earlier, and is expected to grow to 3pc in 2022.