Student housing costs are out of control for Gen Z

Accommodation grows ever more expensive, often for poor housing, says Jennifer Howze. It's another example of how university has become a game of haves and have-nots

- Jennifer Howze

It's that time of year, when parents of university students drop off our young people at accommodation we would decline to enter without anti-bac spray and a hazmat suit. I've seen carpets you'd cross the road to avoid, toilets that are the stuff of nightmares, holes in walls that evoke existential dread. So I understand the fear, trepidation and even, yes, revulsion, many other parents may be experiencing.

But there's something even scarier than houses with mouse infestations, spongy floors and mould that's become sentient: what we pay for them. The cost of student rent has ballooned over recent years - increasing as much as 26 per cent in some places - throwing young people (and their parents) under a bus... and potentially damaging higher education itself.

My first brush with the brutal reality of the cost of student housing came during a summer holiday. I went to make my daughter's first rent payment for her year two flat. It wasn't £670, the monthly rent on her room in a five-bed Bristol flat. It was a three-month advance payment of £2,010. While everyone else drank margaritas, I sat in a bedroom frantically moving money to cover the cost, hoping I wouldn't get stung with a late fee. I should have thanked my lucky stars. The following year, my quarterly payments rose to £2,300.

This academic year, living away from home as a university student costs up to £10,544 outside of London, according to Student Finance England. In London, that figure is £13,762. On average, student rents have jumped more than 14 per cent over the past two years alone, according to the Higher Education Policy Institute. That means for three years of undergraduate study, families could be paying £30k and £40k for housing alone - not counting tuition, books and other living costs.

Why are student housing costs out of control?