Renting crisis forces overseas students to live in hostels and unsafe flats

International students have told openDemocracy how impossible demands from landlords have left them living in hostels and asking friends for help.

Overseas students contribute billions to the UK’s economy but some universities and colleges do not have dedicated halls of residence for them, while those that do are often oversubscribed – forcing students to turn to the unregulated private rental market.

Neehal Bajwa, vice-president for liberation and equality at the National Union of Students (NUS), says issues facing international students include finding a UK guarantor or paying six months’ rent upfront. Both options can be difficult and expensive, and sometimes a student may be faced with the high costs of living in a hotel while they look for long-term accommodation.

Finding a guarantor, typically a UK homeowner with a high five-figure salary, is especially difficult for international students without relatives in Britain.

If they can’t find a willing guarantor, some international students end up using a rent guarantor company. One example we found charged £300 to guarantee a 12-month contract.

Nigerian student Oluwasola Adesulu finished his law degree in Oxford and moved to Manchester for a master’s course at the University of Law in 2022.

“I thought I would get an apartment within one or two days, but it was difficult, and I ended up staying at a Travelodge. When that became too expensive, I moved to another private hostel,” he told openDemocracy.

Even though his first degree was from the UK, it was a challenge for Adesulu to rent a flat in Manchester. After exploring numerous UK lettings websites and scouring Facebook groups, he settled for a house without a contract, only to be promptly issued a week’s notice to leave.

“I couldn’t do anything because I hadn’t signed a contract,” he said, adding that the landlord’s excuse was that the council wanted to take over the house. The situation took its toll and Adesulu began to struggle academically as exams loomed.

Paying for six months upfront because there was no guarantor was just too expensivePedram Bani-Asadi

Pedram Bani-Asadi, who left Iran in 2019 for the UK, says his housing experience as an undergraduate at the University of Leicester was a struggle. Surprised to learn that he needed to either find a UK guarantor or pay six months’ rent in advance, Bani-Asadi recalls that both options seemed impossible. “Three years ago, the rent was around £130 a week for a shared apartment,” he said. “Paying for six months upfront because there was no guarantor was just too expensive.”

He asked friends in the UK to be his guarantors, but “this didn’t go well. The fee for an agency to be your guarantor is also high, and I wasn’t sure of their legitimacy”. Eventually, Bani-Asadi had to settle for a run-down shared flat in halls of residence that were part of the university’s Oadby Student Village, where financial requirements were less stringent.

“We were sharing heaters and there were cracks in the wall,’’ he said. “I paid an additional cost for the bus because it was a 45-minute walk to [university]. The buses were not on time, and I ended up being late.”

Two years on, Bani-Asadi moved to Birmingham University for a master’s degree and faced similar housing problems. He told us he eventually moved into a house with broken door locks that meant strangers could simply walk in and wander around.

Adesulu and Bani-Asadi’s stories are not unusual among overseas students. The total economic benefits of international students to the UK were nearly £42bn in 2021/22 – a 34% rise from 2018/19 – according to a report published in May. But the rules that govern their stay in the UK are restrictive and off-putting.

Higher costs for international students

These are set to get worse – and more expensive. Prime minister Rishi Sunak revealed plans last month to partly fund wage increases for doctors, teachers and police by raising the cost of overseas students’ visa fees, and the health immigration health surcharge (IHS) for use of the NHS. The main IHS is projected to rise by 66% from £624 to £1,035 a year, while work and visit visa fees will rise by 15% and other visas by at least 20%. Critics say the government’s policy is “borderline racist” and overseas students are being treated like “cash cows”.

Bajwa of the NUS believes university fees should be “much fairer”, with the same price point “for everyone, including international students”. She adds that restrictions on overseas students’ work hours should be eased so that they aren’t forced into the hands of shadowy employers if they want to earn more cash. And she called on the government to “provide more council houses to reduce the pressure in the housing market”.

Some relief may come from the new Renters (Reform) Bill, which would abolish ‘no-fault’ evictions and set landlords a mandatory notice period to give tenants. But the law has been repeatedly delayed and has yet to be debated by Parliament, and there are concerns that it could be watered down if lobbyists get their way.

Conor O’Shea, policy and public affairs manager of Generation Rent, which campaigns for tenants’ rights, told openDemocracy his organisation was “pushing very hard to ensure that students and international students retain the same rights as other renters”.