by Vanessa Huang
Illustrated by Mithalina Binte-Mohammad-Taib
Demand for rental properties in the UK is far outstripping supply, an issue that is particularly significant in London, according to SpareRoom. Data shows that there are only 15,000 rooms available for the 106,000 people currently looking for accommodation in the city on the platform, with average rent prices in the city skyrocketing to £553 a week.
The Beaver spoke to students about the difficulties they’ve faced in securing housing, finding consistent patterns of either endless rejections from landlords or being forced to endure poor living conditions.
The first hurdle comes before even viewing any properties. For every listing that’s posted to sites like SpareRoom, RightMove, or Zoopla, estate agents and landlords are bombarded with enquiries and viewing requests – so many that it’s impossible to respond to them all. One student, Emma*, has only made it to the viewing stage for five flats, despite starting her search in May. Another student, Doug Klain, a masters student from the US, shares whether or not you’re able to view a flat can simply come down to luck. He later discovered that he was just one of ten to twenty people that were randomly selected to view the flat, out of hundreds who had enquired.
If they’ve been chosen as one of the select few for a viewing, prospective tenants are often all brought in at the same time, where anything less than making an immediate offer means they lose out on the flat. At one viewing, Doug explained that the landlord informed all ten prospective tenants that whoever placed a deposit first would get the flat. “On the spot, while we’ve been in the flat for maybe two minutes, this one guy just pulls out his phone and says, ‘Alright, give me your bank details right now. I’ll do it right now.’”
Furthermore, there is nothing preventing prospective tenants from placing an offer above the advertised rent, meaning that the highest bidder is most likely to get the flat. In addition to the high rent offer, these tenants often have to also pay six months’, or even a year’s rent in advance.
Doug originally placed an offer on a two bedroom flat in Camden for the asking rent, offering to pay several months of rent upfront. The agent received multiple competing offers, convincing him to raise his offer. It was when they continued to push for even higher offers that he gave up. He says, “[Landlords and agents are] just trying to milk us for everything they can get. And they know they can get it because they’ve got an unending supply of people who will offer hundreds of pounds over asking price, on the spot with no [information].”
The near impossibility of securing housing has left students in situations that are far from ideal. Emma, who is five months into her search, still hasn’t found a flat. She’s opted to live at home and commute to LSE for the time being as she continues to look for flats, but she isn’t hopeful.
Issues persist even with those who have found housing. As prospective tenants are scrambling to swipe up anything that’s available, standards have fallen, meaning that poorly maintained flats are still guaranteed to be snapped up. International students are especially vulnerable due to being reliant on virtual viewings that fail to provide an accurate representation of the property.
Jean-Michel Betran, a masters student from France, met his current flatmate, who was already living in the property, over Zoom. Satisfied with the video tour, as well as the conversation with his flatmate, he decided to take the flat. Given the stress he had faced throughout his search, he was grateful to have finally found a place. This relief was short-lived. When he actually arrived at the flat, “what seemed super clean and nice and tidy in the video was a mess.”
Doug found himself in a similar situation. Unable to secure accommodation while he was still in the US, he assumed he would only be able to find a flat once he arrived in London. “I kid you not, 18 hours before my flight from Washington, DC to London, I get a call back from an agent, saying, ‘Hi, the place that you enquired about is gone, but I have another place. It’s available for about 10 minutes before I’m giving it away to somebody else. Here’s a couple of pictures if you want it. Tell me right now, otherwise it’s gone.’” He took it, thinking it was the best option he had, but like Jean-Michel, he arrived at a flat that drastically differed from what he was shown. The flat had been converted from a two or three bedroom flat into a five bedroom flat. Doug’s room was one section of what would be the living room, partitioned by a cheap plywood wall.
Because of the poor conditions in his current flat, Doug spends most of his time outside, only going back at the end of the day to sleep. “The biggest way this impacts me is [that] I don’t really have a place I can call home,” he says. When we spoke on October 10, he was still looking for housing, describing it as “this constant buzzing stress in the background of everything.”
Jean-Michel was originally hoping to move into a different flat, but the thought of yet more incessant scrolling through SpareRoom has put him off. There’s also a feeling of guilt for being dissatisfied when so many people are still struggling to find a place to stay: “[Other] people’s expectations lowered mine … I ask myself: ‘Am I too picky? Is it just me?’” Though dejected, he’s thankful for “not [being] in the worst situation.”
Many students this year have reached out to the LSESU Advice Service. The Advice Service’s scope of work in previous years has normally consisted of contract checks and resolving disputes with landlords, leaving them ill-equipped to provide any solutions to students struggling to find housing beyond directing them to the usual listing websites. They often say that “you will find somewhere eventually. Just keep looking, keep looking and eventually something will come up.”
Becoming increasingly desperate to find a place, Doug contacted LSE’s Residential Services Office, hoping they would be able to offer some kind of support. They provided a similar response, advising him to check RightMove, Zoopla and SpareRoom. “The biggest help that I get is [from] paying 40 pounds a month for a SpareRoom subscription so that I have better access to send out more messages to places that probably won’t respond,” he laughs.
Every student we spoke to understands the limits of any support that could come from LSE – there are simply not enough places for every person that’s looking. Similar stories from other parts of the country have also emerged, such as the students in Bristol that have been placed in accommodation in Wales, or the students in Edinburgh sleeping on bunk beds in a common room.
At the same time, students have highlighted some areas where LSE can improve. Emma, for one, points to the booking system for halls of residence. Rooms in halls of residence were quickly booked up this year – an option that many students would have gladly taken. When everything has been fully booked, the current system requires students to check back every day and book as soon as there’s any availability. By operating a waitlist instead, Emma argues, a lot of undue stress could be avoided.
Doug says he would like to see LSE expand its rent guarantor scheme. While it currently covers continuing international students who are paying up to £720 in monthly rent and have lived in halls of residence in a previous year, secured housing through LSE Student Pad or the University of London Housing Service, the guarantor scheme leaves out many students, particularly postgraduates. Lowering the bar for eligibility would reduce the number of students forced to fork over significant amounts of money upfront just to secure a flat.
The current renting crisis is unlikely to be resolved quickly. While some have called for rent freezes, as has been done in Scotland, others argue it’s only a matter of time before prices crash. But until pressure eases on the already dwindling housing supply, housing uncertainty looks to be a defining feature of student life.
*Names in this article have been changed to preserve anonymity.
