Well – one possible solution: This year we have, say,
12,000 students in private rooms around the city and they are 40% final year,
40% second year and 20% first year (estimate based on the fact that there are
halls places for 1st years and these are always full so we only get
the overflow). Next year 60% of our rooms are already taken (current 1st
and 2nd years moving up a year and staying where they are or moving
in with friends in an alternative property). This leaves 40% of rooms empty
(4,800 rooms ~ 1,200 houses) some of which will have been taken by the 20% of 1st
years moving out of halls but even if they all had rooms already, that would
only be half of the rooms). So we have between 2,400 and 4,800 empty
rooms at the moment and will need 5,000 if the Uni prediction of 1,000 more 1st
years is correct. So we either need 200 more rooms than are in use this year or
2,600 depending on what the current 1st years have done.
So I’d argue that the letting agent who is advocating reducing rents is panicking and as supply will
be less than demand, their action will damage their income and that of their
landlords but not affect anyone else and could well result in them losing
enough of their landlords to ensure they drop out of the business, which would
be no bad thing (just my view).
But there are a lot of suppositions here and when you have rooms
empty, it is very hard to sit tight and do nothing until mid-August hoping the
rush of 1st years will be big enough to fill all of your rooms.
In the coming years, I do think the new halls coming in will
make it much harder to let properties further out (especially Fratton) and
properties that have limited amenities (tumble driers, TV’s, etc) and which
exclude many bills – so the alternative to dropping prices is to offer more and
that need will increase in future years, so if I had any empty rooms, that is the
path I would be considering.
