Posh students

A lifestyle more Downton Abbey than The Young Ones

IT IS a far cry from the typical image of draughty, damp university digs. Student flats offering on-site cinemas, private gyms, dinner party rooms and Egyptian cotton sheets are booming in Scotland. As the new university term gets under way, spaces in luxurious studio flats costing as much as £13,000 a year are being snapped up.

At Woodside House in Glasgow, su- perior studio flats for two which feature a glass-walled sky lounge, on-site cinema, private gym and dinner party room for £257.50 a week, have sold out.

The accommodation service, run by firm Collegiate AC, also offers luxury lifestyle packs costing £1,300 to provide everything a student could want – from duvets and bedding to wine and reed diffusers.

All studios and en-suite rooms at its Buccleuch Street property in Edinburgh, which cost from £160 to £270 a week, have been snapped up.

In Aberdeen, premium en-suite rooms at Unite Students Causeway View accommodation, which offers an on-site gym, common room and roof terrace for upwards of £153 a week, are also sold out.

In Glasgow, there is a waiting list for all types of accommodation in the city centre-based Gallery Apartments run by CRM Students, which features an on-site gym, cinema room and flatscreen TVs, costing from £168 to £265 a week.

There is also a waiting list for new Vita Student accommodation in Glasgow, which lists free “grab and go” breakfasts and Egyptian cotton sheets among its selling points. Savio Baptista, from Toronto, pays £120 per week for his room at Collegelands Photograph: Robert Berry

The purpose-built student accommodation blocks springing up across the country range from these type of luxury studio flats to less expensive en-suite bedrooms in more traditional-style shared flats, which usually have all-inclusive bills.

Stewart Moore, commercial director of CRM Students, which has locations in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen, said the days of the Young Ones – the 1980s sitcom about four students sharing a squalid house – were over.

He said: “What students want now is well-run accommodation – they want to focus on what is important to them, which is getting a good degree.

“If you don’t get a good degree then the job market becomes challenging and that is why the number of purpose-built [rooms] for students is going through the roof.”

Moore said luxury accommodation was popular with domestic as well as international students and, just like ordinary houses, had a range of prices.

He said: “We do have expensive ones in Glasgow, but they are right on the doorstep of the university and have a cinema and a gym and things like that. Students are demanding more, in their academic life and from their parents.

“They want to focus on their studies, sport or socialising and don’t want to panic that if the boiler goes it will take two weeks to repair.

“All of our schemes and most of our competitors have maintenance guys on

They want to focus on their studies, sport or socialising and don’t want to panic that if the boiler goes it will take two weeks to repair

site, so it is all fixed in a few hours – which makes a big difference.”

He said while for current 40-somethings living in a run-down flat might have been a “rite of passage” and the norm for students, the millennial generation expects higher standards.

He said. “We slummed it in tracksuits – these guys are wearing Abercrombie and Fitch and Jack Wills.”

However, not everyone is quite so happy at the boom in purpose-built student accommodation. Last week, plans for a 185-bed student housing development in Sauchiehall Street adjoining Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art (GSA) were criticised as “totally inappropriate” by the Mackintosh Society.

Sandra White, SNP MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, wants a moratorium on building student flats in Glasgow, raising concerns about the “knock-on” effect in local communities when there is an influx of students.

She said: “It is nothing against stu- dents whatsoever, it is just the whole social fabric of the area is changing dramatically – local pubs are being replaced by trendy bars.”

Investment firms are often behind the building of the accommodation, with student flats now seen as way to guarantee reasonable returns at a time of low interest rates. One expert said most pension funds now have a student accommodation in their investment portfolio.

White said: “They call it student accommodation, but these are private businesses that are opening up. We do need more accommodation – but look at the price of them.”

A recent survey found Edinburgh was the most expensive city in the UK for students, with an average of £112 per week spent on rent, compared to about £110 across the UK. In Glasgow, the weekly average was £96.16, while in Dundee it was £94.49.

The National Union of Students (NUS) Scotland raised concerns about the cost of luxury student accommodation. Vonnie Sandlan, NUS Scotland president, said while some students were able to move into “higher-end student accommodation, that’s sadly not a reality most students can relate to.”

Psychologist Dr Cynthia McVey said those living in the luxurious studio blocks might miss out on one of the life lessons of being a student.

“There is a lot of skill to be learned from flat-sharing,” she said.