A Durham Uni student says their rent is going up over £1,000 next year

Durham University students are facing high rent increases that has led to queues of student outside of estate agents, with one student in particular saying his rent in Neville’s Cross will be increasing by over £1,000 a year.

Jacob Vellucci currently pays £125 a week before bills for his student house, but he said this is now set to go up to £145 a week, meaning that over the course of a year this would amount up to a massive £1,040, a sharp increase.

This was shared in a TikTok video from yesterday, in which Jacob shared his thoughts about the Durham student housing situation. He said his house “has been on the market for two days” and that “people have signed my house in just two days”.

Durham is in the middle of one of the worst student housing crisis ever seen. On Monday night students queued throughout the night in order to try and secure a student house.

Some had joined the queue straight from a night out clubbing, whilst others were reportedly sitting with their laptops doing uni work throughout the night, with Jacob Vellucci succinctly saying “there are not enough houses for second and third years and there’s a massive housing crisis at the moment.”

The streets were so chaotic that students were signing housing contracts against the windows of nearby shops, and many hadn’t even had the chance to view the houses that they had signed. Students were reported to be knocking on the houses for their first viewings after they had signed them.