While most first year students get ready to settle into halls, some freshers will join their second or third year counterparts in opting for privately owned housing, boosting the local market, according to new analysis from Lloyds TSB.
More than half (60 per cent) of university towns across the UK have seen house price growth outperform the region in the past five years, with the biggest increases appearing in towns that have seen a real uplift in the number of students over the same time.
• Aberdeen - home to 29,300 students- saw a house price gain of almost 40 per cent; compared to 14 per cent price growth across Scotland. This is coupled with a 54 per cent increase in the student population.
• The University of Ulster campus is responsible for a 30 per cent growth in student population in Coleraine since 2005 and has recorded a price increase of 34 per cent, ahead of the 24 per cent for Northern Ireland.
• In Winchester, prices rose by 30 per cent in comparison to 2.5 per cent in the South East - as student numbers in the town were boosted by 78 per cent. The average house price of £385,713 is 114 per cent above the UK average of £180,501. However, it's more of a mixed picture for some of the UK's largest University Towns, despite an increase in student population:
• Edinburgh, having the eighth largest student population in the UK, has seen house prices rise by 11 per cent in the last five years, as student numbers rose by over a third to 55,195.
• London and Glasgow recorded price growth of just 5 per cent since 2005, although the student population rose by 76 per cent and 43 per cent respectively.
• Student numbers have risen by 66 per cent in Birmingham, but house prices are 3 per cent lower than 5 years ago and just over 11 per cent below the West Midlands average.
• Leeds, Manchester and Nottingham have all seen their student population rise by over a third, but only the West Yorkshire city has an average house price above that of the region.
"Growing student numbers have had a big impact in boosting house prices in some university towns - where the increase in demand has led to the local market outperforming the rest of the region,” said Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Lloyds TSB.
“However, it's a very mixed picture for some of UK's largest university towns that have seen student population increase significantly without impacting on house prices.
“In the past five years population across the university towns in UK has increased by nearly a million students. Naturally, this has boosted demand for property and land to provide suitable accommodation for students."
KEY FINDINGS
Largest Price Increases
• Seventeen of the 29 towns with the largest price increase are outside southern England.
• In southern England, the biggest increases were in Winchester (29 per cent), Brighton (19 per cent), Cambridge (17 per cent) and Chelmsford (9 per cent).
• House Prices in University Towns and Regions
• At £385,713 the average house price in Winchester is 65 per cent above the South East average of the largest amongst university towns.
• Winchester is followed Cambridge with an average house price of £264,616 (57 per cent above the East Anglia average of £169,050) and Ormskirk (51 per cent above the North West average of £140,120.
• In Portsmouth the average house price of £149,676 is 36 per cent lower than in the rest of the South East. The south coast town is followed by Plymouth (25 per cent) and Hull (23 per cent).
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