Property News · September 7, 2015

Student co-ops open their doors to tackle sky-high accommodation costs


With traditional rents increasingly beyond undergraduate pockets, a property movement is growing that is taking matters into its own handsThe start of the academic year will see five students move into Sheffield’s first student housing co-operative: a property with cheap rent, no letting agent fees and no landlord. It sounds appealing, and the founder members of the Sheffield Student Housing Co-operative (SSHC) are pitching it as a way for a handful of students to not only escape sky-high costs, but to make a student house a real home where democracy rules. Housemates living in the co-operative will manage the property themselves and pay £69 a week – around half the rent charged for some university-run accommodation in the city.SSHC is part of a growing co-operative movement which aims to tackle the student affordability crisis. In some areas of the country living costs are outstripping student loans, and Shelter says half of students are struggling to pay their rent. According to student housing charity Unipol, student rents rose 25% between 2010 and 2013 as universities sold off their own low-rent stock and private companies built luxury accommodation, while the National Union of Students has described the cost of housing as being at an absolute crisis point. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
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