'My rent was higher than my student loan' - the booming cost of private halls

You don't have to walk far in any university city before spotting some form of private Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA).

These large blocks of student housing are springing up in cities across the UK, yet rents continue to soar and young people studying at university say they're still finding it difficult to secure a place to live.

The increase in PBSA has predominantly been driven by private companies, with many developments targeting more affluent international and postgraduate students, who industry experts say are becoming increasingly important to the sector.

Developers say they are meeting a market demand but campaigners argue that they are too expensive for most Scottish students and more affordable housing should be being built instead.

Twenty-year-old Lara Reader told the BBC that when she applied for student accommodation at Edinburgh University she did not expect to be allocated the most expensive option on her list.

Like many first-year students, Lara selected from a mix of university-owned and privately-operated halls which cater solely to the city's huge student population.

She was given a room in Brae House, one of the many private PBSAs in the city.

PBSAs typically offer en-suite bedrooms and studio apartments alongside premium facilities such as gyms, study areas and social spaces - but they also come at a higher price point than traditional student halls.

The rent for Lara's room was £1,022 per month, more than £200 higher than her monthly student maintenance loan.

Despite it being beyond her budget, Lara accepted the offer because of the difficulty of finding student housing in Edinburgh.

She said the cost hung over much of her first year at university and she was "constantly stressing" about how much money she was having to put towards rent.

To cover the shortfall, she worked 20 hours per week alongside her studies, a decision she says contributed to her failing her first-year exams.

"I was exhausted all the time," she said. "I just didn't have enough time to study."

"I think when pricing student housing they need to be more realistic.

"It makes it so difficult for students like me who don't come from a super wealthy background to find an affordable place to live."

The University of Edinburgh said it offered students good value, across a broad range of price points, with entry-level rents being well below the average.

A spokesperson said: "We encourage students to select accommodation that aligns with their lifestyle preferences and budget throughout the application process."

Across the UK, a total of 206,005 students told the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) they lived in private-sector halls in 2024/25.

This is up from 117,995 a decade earlier.

The rate of increase is higher in Scotland, up from 5,500 in 2014/15 to 14,640 last year.

The growth of PBSA has been particularly visible in Scotland's two largest cities.

As of August 2026, Glasgow has 21,655 student beds with a further 18,213 in the development pipeline, meaning the city could host almost 40,000 student beds if all proposed schemes go ahead.

Edinburgh has also seen rapid growth, with the supply of PBSA increasing by almost 60% over the past decade.

A further 5,917 beds were in the development pipeline as of December 2025.

Richard Ward, the head of research at student accommodation marketing website StuRents, said the average cost of privately-operated PBSA in Edinburgh and Glasgow is £268 and £243 per person per week (pppw) respectively.

The national average (excluding London) is £191pppw.

He said: "The rents you're having to charge are about £250 to £300 per week to make a scheme financially viable

"The challenge for the sector is, at that price point, a lot of domestic students cannot afford that."

According to industry experts, international students, who are often better able to afford higher rents, are a key part of the PBSA market.

It's something Lara, from Kelso in the Borders, noticed in her accommodation too.

"A lot of people I was friends with through my accommodation were international students, so funding is very different," she said.

"I think for the most part, a lot of people didn't have as much of a struggle paying the rent, but I definitely know a few people who were in the same boat as I was."

For many international students, however, PBSA offers reassurance that can be difficult to find in the private rental market.

Saba, an international student from Pakistan who had planned to study in Glasgow, said they felt safer than trying to organise a flat from the other side of the world.

"I didn't really know where to start," she said. "Every country has different laws when it comes to properties and renting places."

After missing out on university accommodation, she considered trying to find a property through a private landlord, however, she says she "encountered a bunch of scammers" during her search, including one man who asked for £500 upfront before sending videos of the property.

"As an international student, I feel like you're vulnerable" she said

"There are good and bad people everywhere and the bad lot try to take advantage of that."

John Boyle, director of research and strategy at estate agency Rettie, said purpose-built student accommodation had become one of the most "financially viable" forms of city-centre development, with developers often able to achieve higher returns than from conventional residential schemes, making projects easier to fund and deliver.

"The reason the buildings are going up is because other buildings have gone up and have been successful," he said.

He added that high land values and development costs meant schemes such as affordable housing are often difficult to deliver in prime locations.

Developers also argue that PBSA helps meet demand from growing student populations while reducing pressure on the wider rental market.

Edinburgh and Glasgow city councils both declared formal housing emergencies in 2023.

Campaigners argue the rapid expansion of PBSA is not addressing the housing challenges faced by many students and residents.

Aditi Jehangir, secretary of Living Rent Edinburgh, said: "Scotland does not need more unaffordable, poor-quality purpose-built student accommodation.

"Purpose-built student accommodation is completely unaffordable and not the answer to the housing crisis.

"Throughout Scotland's cities, we have seen development after development spring up, taking up space that could be used for much-needed social housing."

She added that PBSA was "extremely lucrative to developers", did little to meet the needs of local communities and that many units remained empty.

Data from StuRents suggests occupancy rates have fallen in both Edinburgh and Glasgow.

According to figures from June 2026, about 49.7% of rooms in Glasgow had been booked for the upcoming academic year, in comparison to 81.8% of rooms at the same point in 2024.

Similarly, Edinburgh figures suggest that 63.2% of rooms have been booked in the same period, down from 80.6% in 2024.

Nationally, 59.1% of rooms had been booked for the upcoming year in June 2026, compared with 70.4% in 2024.

StuRents' Richard Ward added that the sector had experienced a surge in demand from international and postgraduate students following the Covid pandemic.

However, he said growth in international student numbers had slowed, while new accommodation continued to come onto the market, leading to lower occupancy rates.

International student figures in Scotland have fallen for two years in a row, with a 5% drop most recently.

The largest cohort of international students in Scotland come from China.

Ward said: "The challenge for developers and investors entering into the student market is that from the point of an application being approved to the building actually being complete could be three years, for example.

"During that time the local market could have radically shifted."

Because of this, Ward says that pipeline figures do not necessarily translate into completed developments.

"I'm not expecting, by all means, anywhere near the full pipeline to be delivered in any market, but equally in Glasgow and Edinburgh," he said.