GOING TO END?’
price of accommodation in the local area.
“Students have the ability to pay higher levels of rents due to parental support and the bank of mum and dad. This can push prices up.
“If you think about a house in Cathays which was a two-bedroom house and is turned into four, you are likely to pay a higher rate in that property, and students can afford that.
“These issues people.
“Talking specifically about this area on Maindy Road, it is an area that already has an incredibly high amount of student properties. This means that the vast majority of these problems already exist.
“However that does not change the fact that any development has an impact on an area and people do worry about it.
“With a building this size, even if it wasn’t students, it would still have an impact on locals shops, service and parking.”
One question on all the residents’ lips is, why are all these new flats being built when student numbers are fairly static?
Cardiff’s new tallest building, Bridge Street Exchange, has already applied to have non students in during its first year. Towering at 85m tall (279ft), it aims to provide 477 student rooms and studio apartments. If this is struggling to fill rooms for September, what chance does a development not due to complete for several years have?
Douglas Haig is MD of property really do concern business The Seraph Group and is vice chairman and director for Wales of the Residential Landlord Association.
He said: “While there are a number of student developments coming online, I believe the number of new applications has begun to slow.
“It’s important to understand that some of these developments are several years from conception to completion and after a certain stage it’s very difficult to change the purpose of these buildings, especially the larger developments.
“The market has changed considerably over that time with a reduction in applications from UK students but more notably for this type of accommodation, a reduction in overseas students. This is combined with some of the local universities changing their growth and recruitment strategies.
“Brexit is also likely to have temporarily made people nervous about applying to a UK university until it’s clearer what the final terms of Brexit are.
“I am confident that after everything is settled overseas student applications will rise again as the higher education market is so important to the UK economy, possibly not to the levels we saw for a while.”
According to Mr Haig, a change of use will be seen as a “back up” by some of these developers.
“It is true that there are lower barriers to entry in terms of gaining planning permission and some of the conditions surrounding the student accommodation use type compared to other development types.
“It is possible that some developers have looked to use it to get planning permission to then change use, but ultimately when talking about the rent levels that are currently being achieved by student developments, they generate one of the best returns, so while change of use may be considered as a back-up strategy it would be unlikely it would be a deliberate strategy.
“What has been seen is that as some sites are delivered late and miss the beginning of the academic year they have gone for temporary change of use for short term or serviced letting until the beginning of the next academic year.
“Cardiff council officials have made it very clear that simple longterm change of use is either not going to be accepted or it won’t be accepted without the appropriate financial and amenity contributions as well as most likely considerable changes to the building.
“It will be interesting to monitor those that have gone for temporary change of use to see if they re-apply and what the local authority decides if they do.”
In the swirling vortex of resident rage, it can be hard to see there are positives to these developments. There is even the potential to solve some very large issues within the city. According to Dr Mackie, there is a potential to combat the blight of homelessness on Cardiff streets.
He said: “Regarding the PBSAs, the focus of my research is on homelessness. We have a very tight housing market in Cardiff and my conversations with the council relate to lack of accommodation.
“If the students are moving out of terraced housing and into these purpose-built flats, that is good. If it increases the supply of accommodation then I am happy, but it has to be the right kind of supply.”
What does the council say about the developments?
Cabinet Member for Education, Sarah Merry, who represents Cathays, said they are not against student developments but this one was “totally the wrong place”.
She said: “We spoke to residents as soon as we heard about this application and made our views very clear from the beginning.
“We don’t oppose all student developments, as we know the pressure on housing in Cathays, but this is out of scale, totally the wrong place and will result in businesses closing. We still think this is totally out of keeping with the character of the area.”
A spokesman for Cardiff council, said: “All recommendations that are made to the planning committee are based on their merit, in line with planning policy and law. The report submitted on this application referenced the objections that were made and members were fully aware of the issues prior to the decision being made. Members also went on a site visit to fully understand the local context and understand the issues that were raised by local councillors.”
The developers have been approached for comment.