This is the 9th year that the Council has undertaken a survey on Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) occupancy. The results of the survey are crucial to understanding the PBSA market and ensure that there is a sufficient supply of bedspaces to meet future need.
This survey is being carried out at a later date this year so it is important that you respond to the questions for the 2022-23 academic year and base this on maximum occupation rather than on current occupancy which will be much less, with most students having left for the year.
Ideally, only one survey should be completed per operator, so please check with colleagues to avoid duplication.
In the covering e-mail we have provided you with a breakdown of the information we hold for your scheme(s) including name, postcode, number of studios/cluster beds, and total beds. Within the survey, please provide any amendments to this information, making it clear which scheme any changes relate to.
PBSA Occupancy Survey Results 2023-24
With the significant growth in student numbers over the last decade, Nottingham City Council has promoted the growth of PBSA in appropriate locations. The aims being to increase choice, improve the quality of accommodation for students and to provide an alternative to traditional housing, thereby encouraging a re-balance in some areas of the City where there are the highest concentrations of students. Our monitoring has shown that those households claiming Student Council Tax exemption outside of the City Centre had started to fall. However, in recent years there has been a rise in on street Council Tax exemptions signalling that there remains huge demand for all types of student accommodation including further PBSA. In the current year the number of Council Tax Exemptions has fallen by 2% and this could be an early sign that the Council’s policy is starting to have an impact. Student numbers have also been on the rise in recent years, and these increases have been exceeding the increases in new PBSA bedspaces.
The Council is keen to continue to monitor the provision of PBSA including new developments, those with planning permission and importantly, any vacancies in the existing stock. For the 2022/23 academic year almost 1,800 additional bedspaces have been provided in new PBSA making a total of almost 30,000 bedspaces across the City. In addition, there is a pipeline of around 10,000 bedspaces that may come forward over the next few years (made up of schemes with, or are very likely to be granted, planning permission).
By taking part in the survey you will be helping the Council to monitor the provision of PBSA. You will also be one of the first to receive aggregated results when these are publicly available.
This year, we are also asking some additional questions about whether you make your PBSA bedspaces available to non-students out of term time for short-term lets. These are optional questions and so you do not have to respond. However, we are interested to see which providers do let their accommodation out to non-students, and if operators don’t do this, what are the barriers. This type of accommodation has the potential to offer additional short term let opportunities which could increase tourist and other short term let markets in parts of the year when the number of students in the City is less.
Despite a significant growth in the amount of PBSA bedspaces there are no signs that this growth has led to a fall in occupation levels. In fact, for the 8 years of the survey the occupancy levels have always been above 98%*. The results are set out below.
| Academic Year | Reported Occupancy Rate % |
|---|---|
| 2014-15 | 98.40% |
| 2015-16 | 99.30% |
| 2016-17 | 98.80% |
| 2017-18 | 99.50% |
| 2018-19 | 99.70% |
| 2019-20 | 99.40% |
| 2020-21 | N/A* |
| 2021-22 | 98.90% |
* Due to the impact of the covid pandemic an alternative survey was undertaken that did not ascertain occupancy rates but asked if the market would return to normal once restrictions were lifted with the majority of operators saying that this was the case.
For more information including a copy of our Privacy Notice and how we process your data please go to www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/localplan.
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