"Students are facing a more expensive university education than ever before, with tuition fees going up, the cost of living through the roof, high interest rates, and expensive rent. So to see the stark reality of rent price premiums in major university towns is a real concern"
- Sam Reynolds - Zero Deposit
From the start of the 2025/26 academic year, university students in England will be hit with the first maintenance and tuition fee increase for almost a decade.
New research from Zero Deposit reveals that this fee increase might not be the biggest financial burden students have to deal with due to the fact that the cost of renting homes close to universities comes with a staggering price premium of up to 88%.
Zero Deposit has analysed the average rent price for homes located in the outcode area of the top 100 universities in the UK compared to the average rent price in each respective wider Local Authority District to reveal which universities command the biggest rent price premiums for students who want to have easy access to their places of education.
The data reveals that the average rent price across the outcode districts of the main campus sites of 100 leading UK universities stands at £1,509 per month. This marks a premium of 12.4% compared to the average rent price across the 100 wider LA Districts, which stands at £1,293.
However, this overall average premium pales in comparison to that being paid by students at the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland. The average rent price in the LA District of Fife stands at £804 per month, while the average monthly rent price in the KY16 outcode area – home to the main campus of St. Andrews – is £1,509, marking a staggering premium of 87.9%.
Durham University has its main campus in the DH1 outcode area where the average monthly rent stands at £988, marking a premium of 73.9% compared to the wider LA District.
Meanwhile, the average rent in London’s SW7 (£5,363) – home to the prestigious Imperial College London – is 72.6% higher than that of the wider LA District of Westminster (£3,107).
Large rent premiums for homes close to the University of South Wales in Pontypridd (63.9%) and Liverpool Hope University (58.6%) round off the top five biggest university rental premiums, while the rest of the top 10 is populated by Swansea University (54.8%), UEA in Norwich (44.5%), Aberystwyth University (40.2%), the University of Warwick (36.2%), and the University of Essex in Colchester (36.1%).
Sam Reynolds, CEO of Zero Deposit commented: “Students are facing a more expensive university education than ever before, with tuition fees going up, the cost of living through the roof, high interest rates, and expensive rent. So to see the stark reality of rent price premiums in major university towns is a real concern.
"But the monthly cost isn’t the only financial pressure brought on by renting. There’s also the significant cost of security deposits that require students to be able to hand over a huge lump sum of cash to their landlord at the start of their tenancy. And once the landlord has it, the student has no access to it until their tenancy comes to an end.
"This means it can’t be used to support their studies or cover the cost of living while at university. Instead, it becomes a huge sum of cash that sits redundant in a protection scheme until the student moves home and has no choice but to transfer the money to the next landlord.
"That’s why we’re seeing a growing demand for alternative deposit schemes that continue to protect the landlord from the cost of potential property damage without having to strip students of thousands of pounds that, today more than ever, they need to support themselves and their studies.”
