Nottingham students have more housing choices than ever – but demand is falling

Student renters could be seeing the effects of years of large-scale student accommodation developments, as rising vacancy rates provide students with more choice and help to keep costs down.

With supply outpacing demand, landlords and accommodation providers are left competing for tenants, while Nottingham students hold more bargaining power than ever when looking for accommodation.

Unlike cities such as Bristol or Durham, where hundreds of students queued overnight to secure accommodation amid severe student housing shortages, Nottingham is facing the opposite situation.

According to The Nottingham Post, the number of students requiring housing within Nottingham has declined from 52,743 in 2022-23 to 41,314 in 2025-26.

While Nottingham City Council’s policy of increasing purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) was designed to lighten the strain on non-student housing, it has also helped keep student rents down.

Local plans manager at the council, Matthew Grant, said: “Current conditions appear to have helped stabilise, and in some cases reduce, student accommodation costs, particularly at lower price points.”

Vacancy rates for shared student accommodation currently stand at 11.6 per cent, while studio flats have seen a sharper rise, increasing from less than one per cent before 2023 to 16.1 per cent this year, up from 12.7 per cent the previous year.

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These vacancy rates have increased not only because of the scale of student housing built, but also due to the declining number of students in Nottingham more generally.

The decline in demand is linked to fewer international postgraduate students due to changes in visa and dependent rules, as well as more students commuting from home amidst cost-of-living pressures. With further changes to national immigration policy and a projected fall in the number of 18-year-olds from 2030 onwards, the student population is set to decrease further.

Nottingham City Council has promoted the construction of PBSAs over the last few years to ease pressure on the city’s suburbs, as cheaper housing on the outskirts of Nottingham reduced the number of family homes and led to rent rises for locals.

Plans to convert the old Central Library building on Angel Row were recently approved.

The council’s policy has created a surplus of student housing, with 728 former student properties returning to general housing use. While this is seen as a positive for the council due to fewer council tax-exempt properties, rising vacancy rates raise questions over whether Nottingham still requires student accommodation developments on the same scale, if at all.

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