how do students afford to rent?

[Samcro]

I live in a university town, lots of new build student accommodation, walking past one the other day it was advertising rooms form 230 pounds a week.
dh has worked on these sort of rooms, they are small with tiny ensuite. so curious, how the heck do they afford that, add in tuition fee's, transport(this particular one is not in close walking distance to university) I assume they don't pay heating costs? council tax(at that price I assume its included) but still ....how?

They don’t pay council tax, and bills are all in where my DD has been . The answer in our case is I paid it, and she lived off the loan and what she earned.

The tuition fees are paid for directly by the student loans-£9k a year.

Students can also get a maintenance loan. If your parents earn over a certain amount, this will be £4200 ish and parents will be expected to pay the rest (no matter how many other children they have in childcare/at university). Otherwise, you might get the maximum of £9k ish. Many students get part time jobs. Mine walk everywhere to avoid transport costs. Students don’t pay council tax if living with other students. Some have bills included.

That is expensive. DD paid £155 a week in similar accommodation. Part student loan and part funded by us.

As others have said, loans/parental support/part time jobs. Students are exempt from council tax and halls rents include all bills and are probably term time only rental agreements. While £230 is on the expensive side it's not outrageously so - Warwick for example has en-suites between £170 and £210 a week - probably not as nice as a new build.

They use their maintenance loan, parent top ups and part time job depending on circumstances. There are also bursaries and grants available especially for poorer students at the better Unis

Most students have small amounts of contact time so physically have enough free hours to have a job, socialise and do Uni work. Oxbridge is different before anyone pipes up.
That rent includes bills and is for the student year so about 40 weeks.

DS GF pays 110 for a room with en-suite including all bills, this is East Mids. She works in a coffee shop about ten hours a week plus she is taking a lab based science degree.

My parents paid my rent(bills included) when I was at uni. I worked at the weekend to provide food, books clothing etc. i earned approx 250-300 including tips per week at a really expensive restaurant. I then saved for my registration fees (1k at the time) and holidays etc.

Often overseas students .

My daughter studies at a University relatively near to us and still lives at home. I guess it may cramp her style a little but there are advantages.

We have always paid accommodation fees and they live on their loan, but most we have ever paid was about £650 a month when in halls - mostly when in private houses it's been about £500 a month. After 10 years of it we are now on our last year!!

Maintenance loan, job if they're lucky to get one and parents top up. DD is paying £7800 rent this year, and as she's in her final year they don't pay so much - she'll receive £5300. She struggled to get a job in her uni city, but luckily has got 7-10.5 hours this year and she has two jobs she can call on back home. She stayed home for the first 18 months of covid and I'll give it to her, she worked 39 hours a week and continued with her uni course.

We pay the rent for our DC

Parental help.
In my case we made up the loan to the maximum and a bit more if the rent was high.
Lots of overseas students though. Generally from wealthier backgrounds as their fees are higher as well. They go for the really high end accommodation. When DS2 was at uni his first year flat were looking to rent together for second year. They ended up having to split the group as the overseas students had substantially bigger budgets.

Unless you're in a very expensive city, there will be cheaper accommodation options than this- those paying £230 a week will likely be being topped up by parents or work alongside their student loan.

BUT you do have to consider the £230 a week will be with everything included, so their only other outgoings will likely be food, mobile phone and social life. Students don't pay council tax, and the weekly charge will include electricity, water, internet etc. And usually these flats are within close walking distance of the uni. Usually, someone will clean communal areas etc and there's a warden on site if you get locked out or something breaks.

In second year, many of them will get a house with friends and will be paying let's say £600 for a room- but they'll have bills on top and maybe have costs to commute to uni too. It will be cheaper, but not so much cheaper, and the quality of the accommodation will often be lower.

Even in Edinburgh £230 would be at the top end or private halls

My parents paid my rent(bills included) when I was at uni. I worked at the weekend to provide food, books clothing etc. i earned approx 250-300 including tips per week at a really expensive restaurant. I then saved for my registration fees (1k at the time) and holidays etc.
Christ. £1200 a month for one persons food, books and clothing and no other bills..that’s about £600 a month more than I have every month to feed and clothe my whole family and I work full time and so does DP. 😫
Anyway OP, I think the answer. To your question is parents pay in general, which is why university is really a priveledge of the middle class nowadays, so many families just can’t afford to do that.

When I was a student (in halls and flats) , nobody at had a room and bathroom of their own. Even very small rooms housed two ( in your first year, a stranger you'd never met and had to get on with) , and there'd be one bathroom for a whole student flat/house.

  In Scotland, it was  common for working class students to live at home ( and  study at the local university ) or get lodgings with some family member who lived in a city with a university.

Ds pays £164 per week in Leeds. It comes out if his maintenance loan and includes all bills which gives him about £68 per week left over to live on.

£230 is very expensive unless in London where the loan amount is higher. A friend of Dd did pay roughly that but it was a studio flat she shared with her boyfriend.

@TammyOne i know!! It’s crazy! And that was 18/19 years ago!! I was very lucky to never have a need student loans. I never qualified for grants either due to parents income

Where I am in Uni- only the rich students live in halls or flats- the ones with money from their parents to pay or help with rent.
I could not afford halls- everyone that I know lives at home and commutes in or like me, lives in a big shared house- I have 7 housemates and its £280pcm each with bills included. The cheapest halls at my campus were about £480 pcm.

I work with students. Many of them are working 1 or 2 jobs to pay rent and bills. Some are doing night shifts and then at uni all day. It's really tough for them.

When I was a student in London, 6 of us shared a 4 bedroom house. 1 bathroom. I slept in the living room, 1 in the utility room and we all wheeled our bikes past her bed morning and night. It’s really hard.

My 3rd year of uni mid-90s, I lived on campus in a room with an en-suite having lived in 2 grotty houses for 1st and 2nd year. had no financial help from my parents as they genuinely couldn't afford it. I lived very cheaply. Dh also lived in halls on his campus for both 1st and 3rd year with a grotty house in 2nd year.

As we knew our children would need to be funded through uni we saved up to cover the expected parental contribution of just over £5k per year to top up DC's accommodation and living costs. We didn't want our children living in grotty houses that landlords don't look after well especially student lets. Ds is in private halls of residence, students in the same town are paying up to £50 per week more money than he is because they want a house share in a particular area prioritising clubbing and pubs for location.

I think something like 60% of students work or take a gap year and save up.

We pay DD’s rent. We’ve been saving for it pretty much since the month she was born.

Loan, plus us, plus work during holidays. DD's current 2nd year flat £200 p/w all inc.