Could New Student Housing in Leeds Hold Down Cost?

A new student accommodation development located by the Merrion Centre, which has been named ‘Tribeka’, has recently been completed. The objective of this housing development was to take pressure off of areas such as Hyde Park and Headingley. However, the cost of rent in this new accommodation building is raising questions of the affordability of the Leeds student rental market developments.

The development, which was built in the former location of the College of Technology, began the construction process in 2019. The planning documents state that the core aims of the building was to “take the pressure off the need to use private housing; to avoid the loss of existing housing suitable for families; to avoid excessive concentrations of student accommodation; to avoid locations that would lead to detrimental impacts on residential amenity; and to provide satisfactory living accommodation for the students”.

This aim, however, has been called into question by some local councillors and campaigners.

The cheapest room in Tribeka, in an 8-person flat, costs £169 per week for a full year contract. This makes it £1,560 a year more expensive than the area average, according to Unipol averages. When asked for comment on this, local councillor Tim Goodall stated: “How would most students be able to afford to live here? City centre housing can only take pressure off Hyde Park if it is genuinely affordable”.

Historically, most students in Leeds live in Hyde Park and Headingley. In these areas, according to Unipol, rents vary between £100-£120 on average. However, the median income student will spend at least 40% of their loan on rental costs.

Practices, such as demands for advance rent and holding fees, while guarantors are vetted, have come under fire recently. The Labour MP for Leeds Central and Headingley stated: “What we see is that the most vulnerable renters are financially penalised”. LUU have also worked with the MP on this. The Union Affairs and Communications officer stated: “We have recently driven a campaign with Alex Sobel MP to make the Renter’s Rights Bill more student friendly. The two amendments that have been put through are limits on paying rent more than 1 month in advance as well as regulating the letting season with students in mind”.

Student housing supply and demand has been stretched since 2013, as record numbers of students have been applying to university. The number of accepted applications has more than doubled since 1994, according to the House of Commons Library. Housing stock kept pace with this increase in student populations. A report from Cushman & Wakefield put the ratio of students to beds at 2.1:1 in 2023/24.

Something that hasn’t helped with this rental crisis is the fact that new student housing isn’t required to be affordable. Planning policies delivered during the 2016-19 government exempted student housing from the need to deliver a certain section of the housing as affordable.

Whether student rents go down over the next few years remains to be seen.