Students find renting stressful due to lack of communication from landlords, it is claimed

Students find renting a property stressful with poor communication from landlords cited as one of the major reasons why, new research has found.

Overall 61% of current university students find securing a rental property one of the most stressful parts of their entire experience at university and 66% said it is due to communication issues with landlords.

The research from student lettings app SPCE also found that 70% of current students say that rental accommodation for students is often in a poor, run-down condition.

However, the research shows that the relationship works both ways with seven out of 10 landlords saying that they would not let their property to a student because they do not trust them not to cause damage.

As a result 77% of students and 84% of landlords are in favour of for a system that would provide ratings to tenants and landlords based on previous tenancies.

‘Students and landlords are dissatisfied by the current state of student lettings, underpinned by a lack of trust and communication between both sides. It’s interesting to see many landlords refusing to let their properties to students, perceiving them as bad tenants,’ said Leon Ifayemi, SPCE chief executive officer.

‘This couldn’t be further from the truth. With parents acting as guarantors, there’s a very low risk of students not being able to pay rent on time or provide compensation for damages. What’s more, students are also not deserving of lazy stereotypes of them as reckless party animals as they are far more conscientious than that,’ he added.

The proptech firm hopes its app can improve transparency and communication between a student renter and their landlord. It currently has 50,000 rooms available for rent and 15,000 students pre-registering.

It also has agreements with six major UK universities and has a presence in the country’s leading higher education regions, including London, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Oxford and Cambridge.