A report into Glasgow’s housing crisis has shown that a student accommodation surplus could become a reality within the coming years.
According to a new report co-authored by the University of Glasgow, the city is set to meet the demand for student accommodation in the coming years. The report says student housing shortfall in Glasgow is 6093 beds, not 22,000 as previously suggested by Savills in April.
Glasgow currently has 20,049 student beds in purpose built student accommodation (PBSAs) and student halls of residence. Nine applications for new schemes have been given planning permission since January 2023 and there are an additional 22 live applications, totaling over 7000 total student beds in development. This suggests a student accommodation surplus could become a reality within the coming years.
This marks the latest development in a years-long accommodation crisis in Glasgow. In Autumn of 2022, reports found there was a shortage of accommodation, contributing to a crisis of student homelessness. This disproportionately affected international students, making them vulnerable to high cost and sometimes fraudulent housing solutions.
The University of Glasgow then faced criticism for removing accommodation guarantees for first year students within commuting distance of the university in 2022.
In late 2023, Glasgow declared a housing emergency due to lack of housing for the homeless population and an increase in demand for affordable accommodation. Reasons for this included lack of supply, streamlining of asylum processes, and an increase in the total number of students in the city.
The response to the crisis has been a greater prevalence of students living at home with parents among Glasgow’s university students compared to Scotland’s other major cities, as high as 31% in the 2022-23 academic year, as well as an increase in privately developed PBSAs.
