FEATURES

Council consultants confirm 58% of Exeter’s university students live in city’s residential housing stock

2021-22 university figures suggest there are now more than 4,500 student HMOs in the city, consistent with ONS findings, with number set to surpass Exeter’s council housing provision.

Martin Redfern

Consultants commissioned by Exeter City Council to review Exeter’s Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) market have confirmed that 58% of Exeter’s university students rely on the city’s residential housing stock for term-time accommodation.

Jones Lang LaSalle, a global property consultant with a specialist student housing team and offices in Exeter, was asked to provide an assessment to support the council’s application to scrap its own affordable housing requirement for its controversial Exeter City Living Clifton Hill sports centre site redevelopment.

The assessment, obtained under freedom of information legislation, confirmed in September last year that the combination of university halls of residence and private sector PBSA was only able to provide residential accommodation for 42% of the university’s Exeter students in 2019-20.

Figures published by the university (and confirmed by HESA) show that there has since been an astonishing 20% rise in Exeter student numbers, an increase of more than 4,500 to 27,276 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) students in the city.

(FTE student numbers combine full-time and part-time students into a single total used for planning educational provision. This is lower than the number who require term-time accommodation because of the number of, particularly postgraduate, part-time students.)

The university now has a total of more than 30,000 students at its Exeter and Penryn campuses, of whom 22% are international students from outside the EU, which may partly explain the huge rise in overseas ownership of Exeter property.

The city council told us that a total of 11,488 university halls and private sector PBSA bedspaces had been built by the beginning of last year, enough to provide residential accommodation for 42% of the university’s 2021-22 Exeter students, the same proportion as two years ago.

According to Professor Darren Smith of Loughborough University, who is known for coining the term “studentification” to describe the domination of residential neighbourhoods by student households (and who has twice been commissioned by the council to produce reports on the impact of increasing student numbers in Exeter), an average of 3.5 students share a typical student House in Multiple Occupation (HMO).

This would mean that nearly 16,000 students currently live in more than 4,500 HMOs in Exeter which could otherwise be used for residential housing by local people.

This is consistent with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) finding that only half of all student addresses are revealed by student council tax exemption data.

Exeter City Council recorded 2,432 such council tax exemptions in the city’s residential housing stock in 2021, which may mean the current number of student HMOs is even higher.

Subscribe to The Exeter Digest - Exeter Observer's essential free email newsletter

Your personal information will be processed and stored in accordance with our Privacy Policy

The city council also told us that a pipeline of another 2,500 student bedspaces (of which nearly half will be provided by the Clydesdale, Nash & Birks Grange Village redevelopment alone) will increase the total to nearly 14,000.

But this includes schemes that have not yet received full planning consent and schemes on which development work has not yet begun.

If the remaining schemes are completed by the beginning of next academic year, six months from now, and the university has another year of growth like this one, PBSA will still only provide 42% of the Exeter term-time accommodation needed by just over 30,000 students of whom more than 17,500 will expect to seek accommodation in what will be more than 5,000 HMOs.

In other words another 500 dwellings will be lost from Exeter’s residential housing stock and the number of student HMOs will overtake the number of council houses in the city.


Democracy doesn't work when people don't know who is deciding what on whose behalf and what the costs and consequences of those decisions will be.

Exeter Observer is proving that reader-funded media can deliver the independent public interest journalism our local democracy needs.

Upgrade to a paid Exeter Observer subscription to support our work and get access to exclusive premium content and more.

More stories
Northbrook pool

Exeter City Council fields false prospectus in determination to close Northbrook pool

Ian Collinson reports double down on misrepresentation, material omission and flat denial as council plans to rend more of city’s fabric from its roots.

Clifton Hill sports centre redevelopment site

Second undervalue sale of Clifton Hill sports centre site after buyback loss leaves city with £3m less than initial market value

Council sold land for £2.14m – at £2.11m discount – then bought it back for £3.037m before selling again for £3.375m at £425,000 discount with £225,000 sweetener after also agreeing to spend net £600,000 on preparation, marketing and disposal costs.

Mary Arches car parks redevelopment site aerial view

300-bed “co-living” blocks to trump social housing vision for Mary Arches car parks

More people could be crammed into Eutopia Homes complex than current car parking spaces after Exeter City Council commits to “homes for the people of Exeter” on Liveable Exeter North Gate site.

Exeter Public Spaces Protection Order boundary map

Exeter City Council renews Public Spaces Protection Order for three more years

Measure introduced to curb anti-social behaviour in 2017 extended to 2028 following consultation limited to selected consultees.

Alison Hernandez and James Vaughan

Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez launches Devon & Cornwall Police “accountability board”

Monthly board meets in private with press and public excluded without publishing advance agendas or minutes to ensure force is delivering an “effective and efficient police service”.

Eutopia Homes Exmouth Junction build to rent development rear elevation

First Exeter build to rent flats marketed at £1,375-£2,350 per month with “affordable” units costing £1,080-£1,800 plus bills

Eutopia Homes rents in Exmouth Junction block would leave many workers with substantially lower income than Joseph Rowntree Foundation minimum for a socially-acceptable standard of living.

On Our Radar
Malaika Kegode

THURSDAY 26 JUNE 2025

Spork! presents Caroline Bird and Malaika Kegode

An evening of poetry with live music by Lizzie Lidster and a pop-up bar.

EXETER LIBRARY

St Sidwell's Community Centre supper dish

SATURDAY 28 JUNE 2025

Sid’s Summer Supper Fundraiser

Community centre hosts locally-sourced seasonal three-course meal to help improve café facilities.

ST SIDWELL'S COMMUNITY CENTRE

Signals of the Sea in rehearsal

SUNDAY 6 JULY 2025

Signals of the Sea

Theatre Alibi hosts a Paddleboat Theatre production that follows a lighthouse keeper as he uncovers the secrets of the sea.

EMMANUEL HALL