LSH 2014 Student Accommodation Search Trends

Private Sector Student Accommodation Survey, Dan Cole, June 2015

29%

71%

Who came to the housing fair?

Male Female

90%

1%

9% Where do they originate

from?

UK EU NON-EU

46%

40%

12%

2%

When did students begin to think about accommodation for next year?

Dec

Nov

Oct

Sep

1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year PostGrad

Number of Students 176 5 2 1

0

50

100

150

200

What year of their course were they on?

December 2014 Housing Fair – Survey Analysis

Who came to the housing fair

In total, 184 students gave feedback at the housing fair and can be broken down in the

following demographics:

Next year’s accommodation

Almost half of the survey respondents had only just begun to think about finding

accommodation for next year. In terms of not wanting students to rush, it is encouraging to

see only 14% of students had started to think about finding a place before November.


0102030405060708090

100

SharedHouse/Flat

Private Halls University Halls Studio Homestay

What type of accomodation were students looking for?

% of students surveyed

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Internet/LSH LettingAgencies

University Friends Social Media Other

% o

f st

ud

en

ts s

urv

eye

d

Method of search

How will students find their next home?

Over a third of students had started to think about a place to live next year because they felt

pressured as a result of others talking about or looking at accommodation. Ensuring that

they found somewhere to live was also an important factor that influenced students to start

thinking about accommodation for next year, as well as wanting to make sure they found a

quality property before they had all gone.

Over 90% of students were looking for a shared house/flat. Less than 5% of students

considered a studio for their next place to live.

Over 80% of students intended to use the Internet to find their next home. Over half of the

students surveyed said they would use letting agencies and the University in order to source

accommodation. Only 15% planned to use social media as a tool.


66%

34%

Would students be prepared to pay more to live closer to

campus?

Yes

No

30%

70%

Has the rise in tuition fees affected students decisions

when house hunting?

Yes

No

Close to Campus

City Centre

Local Area

Sense of Community

Property Quality

En-suite

Internet

Gas/Electrical Safety

Bills Included

Flexible Contract Length

Garden

Accredited Property

Value for Money

Reliable Landlord/Owner

Parking

What is important to students when they are searching for a property?

Very Important Little Importance

Other sources that students knew about for finding student accommodation included

Rightmove, My Student Home & Rooms4u

When asked what the most important things were when searching for a property, Internet

was the top priority. Finding a good quality property to rent from a reliable landlord,

including a property with gas and electrical safety certificates was also very important. When

considering rent costs, students were also looking for their bills to be included and for their

rent to be value for money.

Parking, en-suite facilities and a garden were seen as unimportant factors when students

were considering where to live for their next student home.

Most students considered it important to live close to campus, and 2 thirds would consider

paying more in order to be closer to campus. In terms of the rise in tuition fees in recent

years, only 30% said this would influence their decisions when looking for accommodation.


40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80 80-90 90-100 100+ DontKnow

How much rent do students expect to pay?

Rent per week excluding bills (£)

60%

40%

Have students heard of LSH?

Yes

No

Yes No

Have students visited the LSH website in the past 6 months?

24%

17%

16%

13%

13%

11%

5%

1% How do students hear about LSH

Online

University/Campus

Marketing materials

Freshers

Word of mouth (students/friends)

Halls/Housing Talk

Social Media

LSH Office

Students mostly expected to pay around £70-80 per week without bills included. Around ¼

of students also expected to pay between £60-70 or £80-90 per week. Very few students

expected to pay below £50, or over £100 per week to rent student accommodation.

LSH services

60% of the students surveyed at the housing fair had heard about the Liverpool Student

Homes services, however only ¼ of students had been on the LSH website in the past 6

months.

Around ¼ of students

who knew about LSH,

had found out about

the service online.

Students also heard

about LSH on

campus, and/or via

marketing materials,

particularly at

freshers fair.


Househunting info (student

areas, processes of

finding a house, housing

tips) 46% General

help/advice 24%

Promote reliable

landlords 19%

Contract help and checking

11%

What do students want from LSH?

Of the students who had used the website, they generally had a positive experience of the

functions and different aspects of the website. The area that they were least positive about

was the message forum.

Students also fed back on what they thought LSH should offer to students. The main service

they wanted to see from LSH was information about house hunting, including information

on student areas, the process of finding a property and also general housing tips. Students

also wanted general help and advice, as well as a range of reliable landlords to choose from.

International Students

There are some similarities and differences when general feedback is broken down into that of UK

and non-UK students, which can be seen below.

11%

11%

11% 67%

When do non-UK students start to think about their

next home?

September

October

November

December

10%

21%

21%

48%

What type of accommodation will non-UK students look for?

Studio

University Halls

Private Halls

SharedHouse/Flat


Letting Agencies Friends University Social Media Internet Email

How will non-UK students look for their next home?

40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80 80-90 90-100 100+ DontKnow

Rent per week excluding bills (£)

How much rent per week do you expect to spend?

Non-UK

UK

Non-UK students expect to pay slightly more rent than UK students, and are equally likely to

use Letting Agencies and friends to find accommodation, relying on the internet much less

than UK students.

Like UK students, a large proportion of non-UK students also waited until December to start

looking for accommodation. There were a slightly increased proportion of non-UK students

who would consider living in studio accommodation, although their preference, as with the

general feedback, was for a shared house/flat.

A Garden and Parking were both unimportant factors, however non-UK students thought En-

suite facilities were important when looking for student accommodation. Internet was again

the number 1 priority, along with the other identified areas of importance for all students.


Generally, UK and non-UK student would both pay more to be closer to campus, and the

increase in tuition fees would not influence either group’s decision making. Whilst some UK

students would look for accommodation without friends, Very few, if any, non-UK students

would look for accommodation without a friend.

Comparison to Previous Years

The survey used in previous years was repeated so that a year on year comparison can be made to

see if there has been any change in student focus in terms of searching for accommodation. The

following is a summary of the comparison with last year’s findings:

As with the previous year, the majority of students who attended the LSH housing fair were

in their first year, with a higher proportion of female students than male students attending.

Due to the venue for the fair being within the UoL campus, unsurprisingly the majority of

students surveyed were also from UoL. There were more UK students attending this year’s

fair, with fewer non-UK students at the event.

This year fewer students began to think about housing in September. 55% of students last

year started to look for accommodation in November/December, however this year that

figure increased to 86%.

As with the previous year, the main motivations for students to begin house hunting was

peer pressure and others looking. Finding somewhere to live before everywhere was taken

was also important, however this year more students were focused on finding a good quality

home. Location appears to be an even less important factor this year.

95% of students this year were looking for a shared house/flat, an increase on 82% in the

previous year. Whereas in the previous year 9% of students considered a studio, this was

much lower this year, with private halls being a preferred option, followed by university

halls. Even more students (96%) indicated that they would like to live with friends.

Internet access continued to be the most important factor when searching for private

accommodation, with 99% of respondents saying it was very important or important (97%

last year). As with last year a reliable landlord and value for money were also important.

Whilst having flexibility with the length of contract and whether a property is accredited

aren’t the most important factors, they increased in importance compared to last year (55-

68% and 50-68% respectively of students responding very important or important).

Having a garden continues to be the least important factor when house hunting, whilst

parking has become increasingly less important with only 15% considering it as very

important or important, compared to 18% in the previous year.

Generally, students still expect to pay between £70-80 pounds rent per week (bills

excluded), however the number of students expecting to pay £80-90 increased slightly.

Once again 2/3 of students would pay more to live closer to campus. The rise in tuition fees

has become increasing less significant, with only 30% of respondents saying it would

influence their decision, compared to 43% previously. This compares to 40% 2 years ago,

which suggests that when the tuition fee increase was first introduced, it became a factor,

but now that the new fee regime has become the norm, it continues to become a less

important factor.


Most students who had heard about LSH had done so via the Internet, replacing

University/Campus as the main source of hearing about the service. 16% of students said

that they had heard about LSH as a result of marketing materials, including adverts and

posters, whilst freshers fair accounted for 13%, a 5% increase on the previous year. Word of

mouth also remained an important source of information for students to find out about the

LSH service.

LSH 2014 Student Accommodation Search Trends

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