Introduction
The following article is an extract from our recent PBSA report: Meeting the accommodation needs of international students.
The report presents our latest insights into the national PBSA market, with a focus on international students. Through analysis of verified reviews, PBSA rental data, and decision-making trends, we identify key shifts in the context of changing demographics, rising costs, and limited availability.
In this extract, we'll explore insights extracted from our full-coverage PBSA dataset.
Our dataset
Anyone can create a dataset, but we’re proud that the largest players in the sector plug into ours to drive their decision-making.
StudentCrowd Data Customers
So how can it be used to understand the needs of international students?
Rent prices
Focusing first on international student budgets, we reviewed our dataset to answer the question: which is the most popular minimum rent per building for the UK PBSA market? While it is well known that rents have been increasing year-on-year, we nonetheless found it surprising that £150-£199 per week is the most common minimum rent for PBSA in the UK in 2024/25. What’s more, only 9% of properties have minimum rents less than £100 per week.
Source: StudentCrowd. Analysis of lowest advertised rental price per person per week per building in the 24/25 booking cycle. For the purpose of this analysis, the booking cycle runs from 1st November to 31st October.
Minimum rents since 2021
When we compare the most common rents with previous years, there is a clear shift: 20% of entry-level rents were below £100 in the 21/22 cycle and just 8% were more than £200. By 24/25 cycle this has reversed, there is now only 9% of entry-level rents below £100 and 25% over £200.
Source: StudentCrowd. Analysis of lowest advertised rental price per person per week per building in the 24/25 booking cycle. For the purpose of this analysis, the booking cycle runs from 1st November to 31st October.
Student ratings split by rent
When we layer the average value for money scores from students in those buildings, we extract some really valuable insights.
Here we can see that the cheapest stock - of which there is very little - has the best value for money scores for both international (blue) and domestic students (turquoise).
Historically, scores across the spectrum used to be much closer and, in 21/22, the properties that had the best value for money were either the cheapest, or the most expensive. Since then, there has been a gradual shift towards the downward trend across the price brackets, with scores dropping away considerably within the last academic year.
The general consensus used to be that students wanted cheap and cheerful or the complete other end of the spectrum. However, now, in the context of the cost of living crisis, with rapidly rising year-on-year rents in many locations, students have become less satisfied with premium stock.
By splitting international and domestic, we can also see that it is domestic students reviewing premium stock that gave the lowest rating.
Source: StudentCrowd. Lowest advertised rental price per person per week per building in the 24/25 booking cycle overlaid with verified student ratings of value for money from November 2023 - October 2024
Minimum rent over the last few years
The ratings for other categories each tell their own story, but value for money ratings across the different accommodation price points stand out for both sets of students - the only line with a consistent downward trend - so we wanted to explore what might be causing this. It is clear from these graphs alone that no other single factor is closely correlated with the value scores we see here.
Source: StudentCrowd verified student ratings from November 2023 - October 2024
Higher price points come with higher expectations
The price of accommodation makes an implicit promise to deliver a certain service or at a particular quality level. Domestic and international students may have different expectations of what should be delivered for the price, due to their unique past experiences or expectations of what is standard for the UK. 45% of the users on studentcrowd.com with an IP address outside the UK are from developing countries which, depending on their background, may have an impact on the expectations of services provided like internet, time-sensitive maintenance concerns, and general quality of facilities, among others.
Our review data reveals that there is a real challenge with domestic student satisfaction when it comes to the highest accommodation price bracket. Yet the downward trend is the same for international students, albeit to a lesser extent. What value are these cohorts placing on your buildings? How well are they delivering a sense of home? How do the different expectations of your own cohorts currently shape the way you develop, manage and promote your buildings? How does this affect your value proposition?
Estimated monthly cost: top 2 big-ticket items
We hypothesise that the expectations for student accommodation are influenced by the financial dynamics of tuition payments. International students, who often pay much higher tuition directly out of pocket, may have relatively lower expectations of value for their accommodation simply because it costs far less in comparison. In contrast, domestic students, whose tuition is typically covered by loans paid directly from local authorities to providers, may feel that their student accommodation is their biggest spend, thus increasing expectations for it to deliver a quality experience. This psychological distinction, combined with other factors, likely shapes differing expectations of what they hope to receive in return.
Source: StudentCrowd, UCAS, gov.uk. Prices are approximate monthly costs where annual costs have been split into 12 equal installments for illustration purposes. International tuition fees is typical for 24/25 intake for EU and International students undertaking full-time courses.
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