Rent is among students’ greatest expenses whilst at university and depressingly, it looks set to keep on rising.
According to SpareRoom.co.uk, average weekly room rents have increased by seven per cent since February 2012, from an average of £107.44 to £114.86.
That’s a wallet bashing increase of £385.84 over the course of a year and it could be even worse depending on where you’re studying.
In Aberdeen weekly room rents have spiralled by 11 per cent and in East Central London rents have soared by 9 per cent.
The good news is that there are some steps students can take to protect themselves from rent increases.
If you have a good relationship with your landlord and you like the property you are living in you may want to consider renewing your contract for another year rather than moving onto somewhere new.
Most landlords would rather keep good tenants in their property than hike their rents and risk bad tenants moving in, so if you’re happy to stay put for another year it’s well worth negotiating.
Rents in different areas of a city can vary so do some research. You may need to balance things like proximity to campus and access to shops against affordability.
If you’re not yet at university then you should look into which cities and towns offer good value accommodation before you decide where you want to study.
In places like Halifax, Wigan and Darlington rents have actually fallen and needless to say pretty much everywhere is cheaper than London.
The SpareRoom Rental Index is available to download here.
We would love to here what you think about rising rents. Has your rent gone up?
You can leave you comments here, tweet us @GlideStudent or post on our Facebook page.