Student accommodation in London has become so expensive that not even the maximum maintenance loan is enough to cover the average rent, research shows.
Latest findings by the student housing charity Unipol and the Higher Education Policy Institute revealed how the soaring cost of rent in London’s student halls had grown “detached from student income”, now averaging £295 per week.
Despite many institutions now committing to more financial assistance for the least well-off, data shows a widening gap of nearly £3,000 between the average maintenance loan received by English students and the average rent in London’s student halls.
Allan Hilton, an executive in the accommodation sector who sat on the survey’s steering group, described the situation as an “affordability crisis”, adding: “I really cannot see how someone from a low-income background would contemplate moving and studying in London.”
In 2024/25, even those receiving the maximum maintenance loan needed to find an extra £247 to cover the average rent in London halls, the survey found.
NUS President Amira Campbell said: “This is changing the fabric of the student experience in London… an increasing number of students [are] commuting from home, and even favouring online lectures, because they cannot afford to move out or to access campus.”
“Right now, students are being let down and put off by rooms that are under-maintained and overpriced.”
One in five pays more than £20k rent a year
Data shows one in five students now pay more than £20,000 a year to live in purpose-built accommodation, up from one in 20 just two years ago.
Some of the most expensive halls in London are found just a stone’s throw from UCL. A studio flat in the private accommodation opposite Euston Square Station costs more than £800 a week — that’s over £40,000 a year on its 51-week contract.
On average, rent in university-run halls went up by nearly a third (31%) since 2021, whereas rent in private accommodation increased by 58% in the same period.
In 2024/25, just under half (49%) of the rooms available to let in London were owned and managed by universities, which have turned to private accommodation to meet the demands of its expanding student populations.
In recent years, UCL has seen a growing number of ‘nominated halls’ operated by private accommodation providers on the University’s behalf, such as Unite and Urbanest, where rooms can go for as much as £500 a week.
Students say UCL rent ‘too high for what you’re getting’
While most halls in UCL are still owned and managed by the University, The Cheese Grater spoke to students who said below-average rents were still too high to justify below-average quality.
Kotryna, 19, opted to commute from her home in Kent and left her £250-per-week room in New Hall after just six months. She said it was “too isolating”, adding it “felt like living in a liminal space.”
She said: “Price was also a huge factor… I’d have to spend extra money on transport, which gets more difficult when it’s after a night out, so you end up not wanting to go anywhere.”
Asked whether she believed UCL halls were good value for money, Kotryna said: “With how many issues there were going on whilst I was at New Hall, as well as how far it was from campus, I’d say no, it’s not good value for money.”
Last year, New Hall residents filed over 2,000 maintenance tickets — the second highest of any UCL accommodation, beaten only by Ramsay Hall with 3,715 reports, Freedom of Information data shows.
On average, residents in every UCL hall filed nearly 800 maintenance tickets, whilst reported cases of mould doubled to over 200 in a single year.
While rents at UCL were slightly below average among university-run halls, a student receiving the average maintenance loan in 2024/25 would still have spent almost the entirety of that income to cover the average rent in UCL halls, which has risen by a third since 2019.
Oskar Baltrop was the hall community officer for the group of five UCL halls on 109 Camden Road, where residents filed a combined 3,619 maintenance reports in 2024/25.
He told The Cheese Grater: “[UCL] halls, whilst they may be lower than the average [university-run] market and the private market, are still way too high for what you’re getting and what students can afford.”
In 2025/26, the average cost of rent in UCL halls will rise to £282.05 per week — nearly £11,000 on an annualised basis — Freedom of Information data shows.
Oskar: rent in halls are “too high for what you’re getting”. Video by Nick Miao/The Cheese Grater
The University previously admitted to “historically inadequate” spending in upkeep and maintenance in a leaked memo, while a Union source said UCL’s own analysis suggests it could cost more than £200m to bring its halls up to standard.
Asked whether he would rather see more halls in private hands in exchange for better quality, the outgoing hall officer said: “No, I wouldn’t want more privatisation, and I certainly wouldn’t want more outsourcing to private providers.
“I want UCL to put their students first rather than profit, and I think one of the best ways of doing that is to bring things in-house again.”
He also called on UCL to ramp up investment in its ageing estates, adding: “You can’t do one and expect change without the other.”
Despite figures showing unprecedented levels of disrepair, UCL’s crumbling halls nonetheless generated £13m in surplus for the University, The Cheese Grater revealed earlier this month (CG 92).
A University spokesperson said they were “planning on substantial investment into our Accommodation Halls to improve overall asset and service quality in the near future as part of the UCL Estates 2050 Vision.”
Over 100,000 left in student housing supply gap
Hilton described the crisis in student housing as a “perfect storm” in which the increase in London’s student numbers was met with restricted supply of new housing stock, resulting from rising costs and changes in planning rules.
Just 2,800 new bed spaces are being delivered a year — well below City Hall’s annualised target of 3,500 beds — leaving over 100,000 full-time students in the supply gap for purpose-built accommodation, private sector research shows.
Another survey by the planning consultancy Turley found there were just 97,000 beds in London’s purpose-built halls for over 374,000 full-time students living in the capital in 2021/22.
Last year, UCL saw its largest cohort of first-year students — almost 8,500 — according to student registry data. This means about a thousand freshers were left without a place in UCL halls even if every bed under its portfolio were allocated to first-years.
Unipol researchers urged policymakers to recognise the value of the student accommodation sector as what underpins higher education in Britain, worth £265bn to the economy in 2021/22.
“This success story relies on the Purpose-Built Student Accommodation sector providing housing for students living away from home — enough of it and at prices students can afford.”
The report also called for the Government to reform the student maintenance loan system, adding: “Students’ ability to live and thrive at university is often severely restricted by lack of funds.
“The practical costs of going to university are deterring people from applying — and not just people from low-income households.”
The Accommodation Costs Survey is an ongoing study by Unipol that has tracked the cost of halls in the UK since 1961. Previous findings in 2021 revealed how universities have effectively “handed over” the responsibility of providing accommodation to the private sector.
