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Summary of the Durham University in-year analysis of student housing supply and demand

Every year we complete a data analysis exercise, alongside colleagues from Durham County Council (DCC), to seek to clarify the student housing market capacity in Durham City.

You can use this information to support you when making a decision on your housing options, and how and when you search for a home if you choose to rent in the private sector.

This information was last updated in October 2025.

Overview of Student Housing Market

There are three elements to the student housing market in Durham City:

Type

What is it?

Additional information

 

University owned or managed accommodation

 

All our ‘College’ accommodation, including private accommodation which we have leased for the purposes of housing students who want to be housed with the University.

 

 

There are a variety of room types, rent levels, catering options and facilities at each College. Some Colleges also operate commercial lets and tenancy options at these Colleges will reflect this.

 

 

Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSAs)

 

Larger buildings which house circa 100 or more bedrooms. Overall Durham city has 13 PBSA sites with 3078 bedspaces between them. Typically they have services on site, a variety of study and social spaces and rents include all bills.

 

 

Rooms will typically be let on an individual basis, and room types are usually studio, or ensuite study bedrooms with shared living facilities (cooking / dining / living areas). Usually all your neighbours will be students, however it is worth noting this may not be the case all year round.

 

 

Student Lets / Private Rented Sector Housing

 

Private properties in the DH1 postcode area (Durham city and surrounding neighbourhoods) which are available to let exclusively to students. There are around 2530 properties, with the most common type being HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation), where 3 or more tenants will have a joint tenancy in what is commonly referred to as a ‘house share’.

 

 

These are sometimes called ‘off-street’ properties and usually share bathroom(s), living, kitchen and dining spaces. Some have outdoor spaces such as gardens or yards, driveways, garages etc. Even in areas with a dense student population you will still live alongside permanent city residents as part of the wider community.

 

Supply

College and PBSA accommodation is simple to quantify precisely, since the University knows how many beds it has across its estate, and we have the precise number of beds in each PBSA. We account for known ‘outages’ (rooms or blocks which may not be available due to refurbishment or repair programmes) within our forecasts. We are also able to make reasonable allowances for potential unplanned outages.

In 24/25 there were 7856 bedspaces available in University owned/managed accommodation (this includes some PBSAs or rooms in PBSAs where the University has leased them) and 2,051 in PBSA.

Understanding the amount of accommodation available in student lets is more complex and less accurate – although we do a lot of work to ensure the data is as accurate as it can be. We use two main sources of data:

  1. University data from Banner of students' own self-reported term-time address
  2. DCC data on Class-N Council Tax exempt properties, which are exempted from council tax because they only have student residents. DCC's data includes the number of students at each such property.

Neither of these sources of data is completely accurate - students may not update their Banner record accurately or when they move properties from one year to the next; and some houses which are recorded as being exempt may not be, or there may be students living in houses with some non-students, in which case the property wouldn't be exempt and therefore not included in this analysis.

By comparing the two sources of data, alongside the total number of students we know are living in the DH1 postcode area (again, not perfect since it relies on self-reported information), we have been able to produce the most accurate picture of student housing supply that has been produced for Durham - with an upper and lower range within about 5% of the total City supply.

That data showed that in 24/25 there were approximately 8927 bedspaces in student lets in the private rented sector.

Together with the University owned/managed accommodation and PBSA figures, there was therefore a total of 18,834 bedspaces in the DH1 postcode area.

There is no indication at this point that supply changed significantly in the last academic year (24/25) in the PBSA or private rented sector. Other factors affecting overall total bedspaces in the city for this academic year (25/26) include:

  • that one new PBSA scheme has been available to let for 25/26 (Regatta Place);
  • that no contraction of the student lets side of the market has been reported;
  • that both the University and PBSA sector have a number of bedspaces offline in 25/26 for refurbishment or as a result of development plans.

Demand

In 24/25 the University had a total of 20,887 students, of which 20,210 were full-time.

There were 18,026 students living in the City in 24/25, and we estimate that around 800 bedspaces remained available in the City.

There has been enough accommodation in the city for everyone who wanted it this year (25/26).

Looking at our position on the capacity of the city at the start of 24/25, and comparing this to the in-year analysis we are confident that our numbers stand up to scrutiny.

The Housing Picture for 26/27

In 25/26 planned total student numbers are expected to be higher than 24/25 (although actual total student numbers for 25/26 are not released until after the 1 December census date).

It can be reasonably expected therefore that demand for accommodation in the City for 26/27 will be higher than in 24/25 and 25/26.

We currently believe there will be enough housing to meet student demand for 26/27.

We can plan for this and, according to the most recent information we have on the planning pipeline in our City, the impact of this will be limited and short-term.

There are risks to supply within student housing markets across the country when the Renters Rights Act is implemented. We are considering these risks within our forecasting.

We will take all the information we have on supply and demand and, as articulated in the 2023 refresh of our 10 year strategy, we will continue to manage student intake and accommodation mindful of the capacity of the City.