Unsurprisingly therefore three in five (61%) university students find securing a rental property one of the most stressful parts of their university experience.
Seven in 10 landlords refuse to let to students because they don’t trust them not to run amok with their properties, research from student lettings app SPCE has found.
With this in mind unsurprisingly three in five (61%) university students find securing a rental property one of the most stressful parts of their university experience.
Most students (77%) and landlords (84%) would like to see a system where tenants and landlords are rated based on previous tenancies – so they could both be trusted.
Leon Ifayemi, chief executive of SPCE, said: “It’s interesting to see many landlords refusing to let their properties to students, perceiving them as bad tenants.
“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; they are far more conscientious than that.”
The SPCE app launched in November after raising £280,000 on Seedrs earlier in the year.
The remit of the app is to improve transparency and communication between student renters and landlords.
Experian will work with the app to help students develop a credit rating while at university.
There are currently 50,000 rooms available for rent on the app and 15,000 students have registered download it.
SPCE has agreements with six UK universities as well as a presence in London, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Oxford and Cambridge.
