A PropTech supplier claims 83 per cent of students have lived in accommodation considered ‘unfit for habitation’ under the Homes Act 2018. 

A survey of over 1,000 students by Stint found that 41 per cent have lived in a property with mould or damp. Some 45 per cent have had a broken door or window lock, with 19 per cent having a broken smoke alarm. 

This is against a backdrop where 85 per cent of students believe the quality of their student accommodation is important or very important to their mental health.

In terms of cost, 21 per cent of students apparently claim to spend 100 per cent of their maintenance loan on rent: Stint says “these taxpayer-funded loans are designed to cover all living costs, from monthly rent and food to transport and textbooks, yet these figures reveal that hundreds of thousands of students are forced to spend their entire loan to cover rent on substandard housing.”

Company co-founder Sol Schlagman adds: “Students having to put up with shoddy housing has always been treated as par for the course and as a bit of a joke. This is a joke that has gone too far. No one should be forced to live in unsafe accommodation, particularly when hundreds of thousands of students are spending their entire maintenance loan on it.

“At a minimum, the government should protect students by including student landlords in any forthcoming landlord register. This will ensure that landlords are held to account and deliver the housing that the student community deserve.”