Student bed numbers added at record rate

A record number of bed spaces for students have been delivered this year in the UK, taking the total number of purpose-built spaces available to more than 600,000. Property adviser Cushman&wakefield’slatest snapshot of the sector shows that 30,000 student bed spaces were provided in 2017. The supply of studio rooms has more than doubled since 2014 with 97 per cent of these provided by the private sector this year.

In Manchester, which has the largest student population outside of London, annual studio rents increased by 5 per cent. In Glasgow, the number of studio beds increased 29 per cent, while annual rents fell by 2 per cent.