Warning over the 'dire' shortage of student digs

THE 'DIRE' student housing crisis is 'only going to get worse, a property expert has warned. 

-  ETHAN DAVIES

There are 4,000 more students than rooms available in halls of residence, shared houses and private purpose-built student accommodation in Manchester, new data seen by the M.E.N. from StuRents, a student property search site, shows. That's a gap of seven per cent.

To compound matters, four in five newly-built student rooms cost more than the average maintenance loan. Of all student accommodation in the city, 37 percent of rooms are out of reach to the average student.

It's led Michael Rainsford, the cofounder at StuRents, to paint a bleak picture for students coming to Manchester, which is home to the UK's largest single-site university - the University of Manchester, with roughly 40,000 students. Manchester Metropolitan University is also large, with around 32,000.