Lloyds TSB, alongside with data from the Higher Education Statistic Agency, has promulgated research concerning house prices dynamics within and nearby university towns across the UK.
It was found that first year undergraduates usually prefer to live in halls (most courses offer accommodation), meanwhile students in their second or third year think about renting houses with their partners or friends, which in turn pushes the neighbouring local market up. In the majority of university regions prices have soared by 60% in the last five years, and this figure is even higher in universities with an increasing number of students.
For instance, Aberdeen, which is home to more than 29 thousand students, saw a house price growth of 39,6%, meanwhile the average for Scotland is only 14%. Among other examples Lloyds underlines Winchester, where a price increase completed 29pc, in comparison with the average 2.5% across the South East. The prices in Winchester are now 65% higher than the middle regional ones. By the way, 17 of the 29 towns that demonstrated the most significant uplift are situated outside Southern England.
Nitesh Patel, Lloyds TSB’s housing economist remarked that we can observe this because the demand from students’ side bears the activity all over the local market.
However, the number of students in big cities is not big enough to influence the market. London, Glasgow, Birmingham and Leeds have seen insignificant changes, despite the fact that their student populations have risen by from 30% to 70%.
