Students in Glasgow face paying up to £5,000 more for accommodation than their counterparts in Aberdeen during the next academic year, as a new report lays bare the shortage of beds in Scotland’s biggest city.

New research has found Glasgow students are facing an average 18% rise in the cost to rent an en suite room to £235 per week. That means it will cost an average of £11,985 for students to rent en suite room in the city for 51 weeks. Average studio room rents are predicted to rise in Glasgow, by 25% to £294, taking the cost for a year to £14,994.

Costs in Aberdeen and Dundee are markedly lower. The average rent for a room in a shared flat in the Granite City has remained stable at £138 per week, equating in £7,038 per year, although average studio room rents are expected to increased by 13% to £206.

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In Dundee, meanwhile, the cost of renting an en suite room is expected to drop by 8% to £159 per week, while studio costs will rise by 6% to £238 per week.

The statistics were compiled by property firm CBRE, which analysed the purpose-built accommodation sector (PBSA) in the UK’s 30 major university towns and cities.

The research highlighted rising rental costs for student accommodation in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, with the cost of renting an en suite or cluster room in the Scottish capital expected to rise by 8% to £214 in the new academic year; average rents for a studio will increase by 7% to £304. The research calculates that a student renting in Edinburgh would pay £10,914 for a cluster room or £15,504 for a studio for a year.

Chris Dougray, executive director of CBRE in Scotland, warned rising costs may lead some students to return home during the next academic year. CBRE noted that, with the maximum loan and bursary package totalling £11,400 for 2024/25, students will be under pressure to find cash for food and other essentials.

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Mr Dougray said: “There is a notable difference between how much it costs for a student to live in Aberdeen and Dundee, compared to Glasgow and Edinburgh and that will undoubtedly have to be factored in when school leavers and mature learners are considering where to study.

“The upcoming spike in accommodation costs, particularly in Glasgow, is concerning and the shortage of available PBSA in the city means higher rents are inevitable because there are so few vacancies.

“It’s estimated that there is a shortfall of 22,000 student beds in Scotland’s largest city alone. Although there are plans for a number of new developments in the pipeline, for example at Collegelands near Strathclyde University, there is a long way to go before demand is met.

“With the rent rises for the next academic year coming, some students may have to move out of accommodation mid-degree and move back home if they can as they can’t make ends meet even with part-time jobs to pay for the other essentials such as food, travel and clothing.”

Tim Pankhurst, head of student accommodation valuation at CBRE, said the decrease in student accommodation supply and growing rental prices could soon encourage economic migration of university undergraduates in the UK.

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He said: “Historically London has been the only UK city where the affordability of student rents hasn’t aligned with the available maintenance loan. However, we’re now seeing this same trend play out across our key regional university towns.

“As maintenance loan growth lags and the cost of attending university grows, we could see a shift in where they choose to go. More than ever, the cost of living is becoming a key decision driver for domestic students when deciding where to apply to study.”

CBRE found the sale of buy-to-let homes has contributed to the loss of around 10% of the UK’s private rented stock since 2016, which has impacted the largest accommodation pool for students.

However, only 9,000 new bed spaces were delivered to the PBSA market, which has become core to the provision of accommodation in university towns, last year. Only 14,000 bed spaces are projected for this year, which CBRE said was significantly lower than the historic average of 30,000 new bed spaces delivered per year.

Planning conditions, elevated construction costs, and the rising cost of debt have all influenced the supply pipeline and development viability in the sector and the shortfall in beds is increasing, CBRE noted.

Despite this, the agent said there is still ample interest from institutional investors in the sector, with nearly £4 billion of deals transacted in 2013. It noted that universities are increasingly looking to the private sector to develop PBSA, as budgets become further constrained.

Oli Buckland, head of PBSA investment at CBRE, said: “With conditions predicted to become more viable in 2024 and the current scarcity of quality-built stock, institutional investors will return to forward fund new developments. Leveraging this investment capital would make it possible to address the chronic shortage of student accommodation our university sector is facing, which will only intensify in the next five to 10 years.”