Bunk has conducted an independent survey of 300 students across the UK between November 1st to December 1st to prove that the student property market for 2021 is largely uninfluenced by the resulting Covid escalation.
The coronavirus vaccine is still vaguely indeterminate, meaning that many students are facing the prospect of returning to their University towns next academic year without the immunity/protection against the virus.
Whilst the mainstream media has marked the death of the student property market for next academic year claiming that: “The impact of Covid-19 is a car crash waiting to happen as students stay away and courses move online.” The results coming from the students of the UK suggest differently.
- 85% Of current students said they would return to rent a property in their University town for next academic year.
- 4 out of 5 of these students have said whilst this university experience has been different to how they had imagined, they would still rather be enrolled and living at University rather than at home.
- 78% of students said their disappointment is towards the university rather than their living situation
Bunk state that their research suggests the student property market is still thriving and will continue to thrive into 2021. Whilst students have experienced hardship, renting a property with their friends stands as a beacon of hope and the silver lining to Covid’s destruction on University as a whole.
Bunk is following this trajectory and does not see the demise of PBSA (purposely built student accommodation) next year. As a property management platform for PBSA developments, Bunk has been continuously onboarding students into properties for next academic year with PBSA developments managing to sign upfront tenancies for international students, making their rental income Covid-proof.
These results of this survey show that whilst Covid will have an impact on the future developments of student accommodations, a factor hindering this process will not be students’ appetite to rent from them. This will undoubtedly put a delay on developments but PBSA’s should expect to see their properties being filled quickly.
Shona Wright
Shona covers all things editorial at TechSPARK. She publishes news articles, interviews and features about our fantastic tech and digital ecosystem, working with startups and scaleups to spread the word about the cool things they're up to.
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