University of Portsmouth Students’ Union
Introduction This report discusses the findings from UPSU’s ‘Love Your House’ survey, carried out in April 2012. This survey marked the Union’s first attempt to gain a real understanding of student opinion on housing in Portsmouth. As a democratic organisation it is important that UPSU seek the student voice in order to inform direction and strategy. The survey was put together following consultation with Union staff members and Sabbatical officers, the University Student Housing department and Portsmouth City Council.
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Contents Page
Chapter
4 5 6 7
Executive Summary Methodology Vital Statistics Headline Figures
8 House Hunting 8 Where do students look? 8 What are students looking for? 8 Signing contracts 9 Choosing housemates 10
Costs
11 Housing Standards 11 Common complaints 11 Landlords and letting agencies 11 International and EU students 12 Would students recommend their landlord or letting agency to a friend? 13 What have students been saying about their landlords? 14
Recommendations
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Executive Summary The standards of these properties can vary wildly, and so it is important that UPSU supports students in making the right choice when looking for a property, and understand the issues that those living in these properties are facing. The Love Your House survey, as a part of the wider Love Pompey campaign, has sought to gain a better understanding of where and how students go about looking for a property, and then of their experiences of these properties. UPSU has developed close working relationships with both the University’s Housing department and Portsmouth City Council, and it is hoped that the results and recommendations of this report will go some way towards directing future collaborative work between those organisations with an interest in improving the standard of accommodation available to students.
Stephen Roberts Vice President (Welfare and Community) 2011/12
UPSU has made a commitment to improving the quality of housing for students as a part of the Strategic Plan 2011-2014. This strategy outlined plans to introduce a ‘rate your landlord’ system and develop an approval scheme for rented properties to raise the quality of housing in the city. Housing must be a key consideration in the welfare support provided by the Students’ Union; it involves more than putting a roof over someone’s head and cannot be separated from issues as diverse as student finance or mental health. Discounting those in Halls of Residence, it is estimated that at any one time there are roughly 17,000 students resident in Portsmouth in around 4,000 properties.
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Methodology Data was collected from 1st – 30th April 2012, with this collection taking place online via the SurveyMonkey website. This survey was advertised on the Students’ Union website at www.upsu.net, via various social media accounts and by a number of University departments, in an attempt to accurately reflect the diversity of the student body at Portsmouth. All students taking part in the survey were asked to answer questions relating to their house hunting activities this academic year, whilst those currently living in private accommodation were asked to record their experience of this accommodation.
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Vital Statistics The Love Your House survey was completed by 554 students at the University of Portsmouth; these responses were collected online using the SurveyMonkey website. 81.5% of those surveyed classified themselves as Home students, 9.4% were from a country within the European Union and 9.1% classified themselves as an international student. Of those students living in private accommodation, 61% were living in a property managed by a private landlords, while 39% were managed by letting agencies. 2.2% of the students surveyed were studying on a Foundation course at the University, 89.5% were studying an Undergraduate course and 8.3% were from Postgraduate courses. Of those students that completed the survey, 72.2% were under the age of 21, 25% were aged between 22-30 and 2.7% were aged 31 years or older. 3.3% of respondents identified themselves as having a disability, while 5.8% of students surveyed were living with a family or other dependants.
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Headline Figures MOULD, REPAIRS, HOUSEMATES and NEIGHBOURS are the most common comlaints made by students living in private housing
£312
is the average cost of rent per month
£336
is what students in Halls expect to pay next year
69.2% of students
rate price as ‘very important’ when looking for a property
75.6% 53.4%
would recommend t h e i r P R I VAT E LANDLORD to a of students surveyed f r i e n d would recommend their LETTING AGENCY to a of students surveyed f r i e n d
HOW DO STUDENTS LOOK FOR PROPERTIES? STUDENTS IN HALLS
STUDENTS IN PRIVATE HOUSING
70% use a property portal
63.2% use a property portal
68.1% use Student Housing or
57.4% ask friends
43.5% use Student Housing or
StudentPad
60% ask friends
StudentPad
27.5% use the UPSU website
15% use the UPSU website
5 2 . 9 % o f re s p o n d e n t s v i ew less than 5 h o u s e s b e f o re m ov i n g i n
the average admin fee paid by students is
£161 PAGE 7
House Hunting WHERE DO STUDENTS LOOK?
WHAT ARE STUDENTS LOOKING FOR?
All students surveyed were asked to indicate where they look for new properties, and were encouraged to select more than one option if they use a combination of methods to find properties. Results suggest that most students will not rely on just one method of house hunting, but will instead use all resources that are available.
Price was overwhelmingly the main consideration made by students when choosing a property, with 69.2% of respondents rating this as ‘very important’.
The most popular way to look for student properties was using an online property portal (Rightmove, Zoopla etc), with 66.1% of students making use of these. 58.9% of students responded that they will look for properties by asking friends. 48.6% phone or visit local letting agencies, whilst 37.6% will simply pick up leaflets left around campus and local shops by landlords and letting agencies. Student Pad and the Student Housing service were used by 53.2% of students, although there was a marked difference between the repsonses of those living in Halls, and those in private accommodation. 70.3% of students in Halls made use of Student Housing when looking for properties, whilst only 43.3% of those living in private accommodation did so. This pattern is repeated in usage of the Students’ Union website; 27.5% of students living in Halls use the Union whereas that figure is almost halved for those in private accommodation at 14.8%. Despite this, awareness of the support available from Student Housing and UPSU is high, with 77.5% of those in Halls and 76.2% of those in private accommodation being aware of the services.
The appearance of the property and location (proximity to the University or amenities) also featured highly in students considerations; 41.8% rated appearance as ‘very important’, whilst 40% rated the location similarly. Although the majority of students considered the safety of a property when house hunting, it is interesting to note that 18.5% of respondents considered this to be either ‘not very important’ or ‘not important at all’. It is also apparent that a large number of students do not consider the neighbourhood they are moving into, with 33.4% of students rating this as either ‘not very important’ or ‘not important at all’.
SIGNING CONTRACTS There is a marked difference between when those living in private accommodation and those in Halls sign tenancy agreements for the next academic year. Those already in private accommodation tend to sign contracts much later in the year, with 46.7% yet to have signed contracts upon completion of this survey in April. This is in contrast with students in Halls, of which 62.3% had signed before the end of February. Another interesting finding is that 72.4% of those surveyed had viewed less than 5 houses , with 20.7% having viewed just one property at the time of completing the survey. Of course, not every student will have signed a contract at this point, but 65.2% of those that have signed had viewed less than 5 properties before doing so.
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House Hunting
CHOOSING HOUSEMATES The majority of free text responses provided by students indicated an even split between living with coursemates, old friends that they knew before coming to Portsmouth, and those that they have lived with previously, either in Halls or private accommodation.
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Costs RENT Students pay an average of £312 per month when renting a property in Portsmouth, although the amount paid varied between £200 and £550. The majority do pay somewhere between £280 and £340. Students living in Halls, who were either looking for a property for the next academic year, or who had already signed a contract for this period expected to pay an average of £336. This amount is slightly higher than the actual cost of rent, but still within the normal amount. The average administration fee paid, or expected to be paid by students in Portsmouth is £161. DISTRIBUTION OF RENTAL COSTS IN PORTSMOUTH
Number of responses
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Cost of rent per month
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Housing Standards COMMON COMPLAINTS Complaints made by students included, but were not limited to, those about mould, repairs, housemates and neighbours. 13% of students reported that mould had been a problem in their current property. Complaints centre around an unwillingness for either landlords or letting agencies to help address this problem - “mould constantly grows on downstairs walls, mushrooms have grown in the bathroom...landlord is no help with this”. A similar number of students made complaint of the length of time that property repairs take or that repairs are not satisfactory. One respondent commented “a window was broken before we moved in and this has still not been repaired. The boiler in the kitchen leaks and the landlord has solved this by placing a bucket underneath it”. There are, however, examples of satisfied tenants, who have been well serviced by landlords and letting agencies - “Broken oven, replaced within five hours. Blocked drain, fixed same week. Broken boiler, plumber came out the same day”. A large number of students had cause for complaint about their own housemates when completing the survey, providing examples of housemates who fail to pay their rent, or more commonly refuse to take on any responsibility for keeping the property clean. One student represents the views expressed by many in commenting that “[they] moved with friends from halls...grew apart and it was difficult to get on”. A significant number of respondents commented that they had experienced violence, aggression or bullying from their own housemates. Noisy neighbours are an additional problem for students in Portsmouth. There is no indication from
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comments whether these complaints are against other students or local residents however.
LANDLORDS AND LETTING AGENCIES Students were asked whether they would recommend their landlord or letting agency to a friend, and indicated a marked difference between properties managed by individual landlords, and those managed by agencies. Private landlords were recommended by 75.6% of students, whilst letting agencies were recommended by just 53.4%. Those letting agencies that represented 5 or more responses are presented and ranked on the next page, according to the percentage of respondents that would recommend them to a friend. Both positive and negative comments relevant to these agencies and landlords are presented on the page opposite. Letting agencies are rated poorly by students because of poor communication, and a general lack of service. One respondent commented that “they can occassionally be efficient.... [but] there is barely any communication between representatives”, whilst another mentioned that there was a “lack of communication. Service isn’t very personal, but I have had worse with other agencies”.
INTERNATIONAL AND EU STDUENTS Both International and EU students were more likely to recommend their landlord or letting agency to a friend than Home students, with 75.6% of EU students and 82.4% of International students doing so.
Housing Standards WOULD STUDENTS RECOMMEND THEIR LANDLORD OR LETTING AGENCY TO A FRIEND?
LETTING AGENCY
This was a key question, asked of every student that was living in private accommodation at the time of completing the survey. The following is a presentation of those letting agencies that students rated. To be included on this list, agencies needed to receive 5 or more responses in the survey. It was felt that it would be unrepresentative to highlight those which had not met this minimum requirement.
UNIVERSAL PROPERTIES
77.8%
AVERAGE RESPONSE FOR PRIVATE LANDLORDS
75.6%
GD3 LETTINGS
66.7%
TULLY & CO
65.4%
Unfortunately, no individual landlords met the minimum criteria, and so have not been included in this presentation of results. Private landlords did however receive a far higher percentage of positive feedback than letting agencies. All students were given the opportunity to make comments in free text about their experiences with their landlords or letting agencies. These comments have not been presented to reflect specific agencies or landlords, but rather as representative of the comments made by all students. Positive comments broadly reflect the experiences of those agencies and landlords that students would recommend, whilst negative comments reflect those they would not.
YOUR MOVE
WHAT % OF STUDENTS WOULD RECOMMEND TO THEIR FRIEND?
60%
NEW ERA LETTINGS
57.1%
AVERAGE RESPONSE FOR LETTING AGENCIES
53.4%
CHRISTIES
46.2%
CAMPBELL PROPERTIES
42.9%
TENANT NETWORK
40.9%
KINGS
0%
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Housing Standards My landlord has been very helpful and The price is reasonable, understanding, he always comes when the location is within we ask him and helps us fix problems walking distance, the house
C o m m u n i c a t i o n By far the most has been superb! reasonable landlord I I have the space and room to study and time to myself, but if I need someone to talk to then my landlady is supportive, as well as extremely trustworthy
have had. Repairs are done when asked and he built us a bike shed! Rent is very reasonable
is amazing and in good condition. When things need repairing the landlord will come straight away!
Very friendly letting agents, always very good when we have had a problem Very supportive and understands how students live, which is important
WHAT HAVE STUDENTSO V E R He IS a BEEN SAYING P A I D cool cat ABOUT THEIR A lot of money, which you don’t to get the LANDLORDS? seem service for. They They are shocking, no care or communication...wholly uncooperative and the house is in shocking condition
Not very well organised I need to call them more are unhelpful and and we’ve been quite than 3 times for any don’t respond to disappointed with them complaint to be taken any questions or
Had to take legal action to get our deposits returned, landlord gave no reason for withholding this and the letting agency couldn’t care less PAGE 13
seriously. Poor service issues that we have Landlord has been useoverall and they pester less and tried to do like crazy for rent as little as possible She lives abroad for most of the year and basically denies any reponsibility for repairs needed
Recommendations RECOMMENDATIONS
those agencies that do so, and advertise those agencies committed to improving the standards of student housing.
UPSU must work alongside Student Housing to promote the StudentPad website, and encourage private landlords to become accredited by the This accreditation process need not be expensive or overly complicated. By allowing students to make University complaints and manage the process UPSU can work It is evident that students enjoy a far better towards a student led accreditation scheme. experience when renting from private landlords, and UPSU must encourage students to seek properties UPSU and Student Housing should look to provide more resources for all students when looking for rented by these landlords. properties, by organising a Housing Fayre during the Despite this there will always be rogue landlords, who second term of the academic year. are not able or willing to provide a quality service for students. By working more closely with Student With a large proportion of students unhappy with Housing to promote StudentPad and encouraging the service they are receiving and the standard of landlords to become accredited by the University, property they are living in, UPSU and Student Housing UPSU can hope to influence private landlords, and should seek new ways to educate students in making ensure that students have access to those who are the right choice. committed to providing quality accommodation. A large number of students appear to stop looking UPSU must be proactive in influencing those letting for advice from these organisations once they are agencies that are advertising student properties, already living in private accommodation. A Housing by establishing its own scheme to accredit letting Fayre could provide opportunity for Student Housing to advertise the StudentPad website at a particularly agencies. relevant time of year, and for UPSU to encourage Results from this survey suggest that although students to use those letting agencies that are properties with private landlords offer a better working to provide quality housing for students. This experience for students, 39% of students are still could work alongside a UPSU accreditation scheme. renting through letting agencies. It is probable that the number of students using letting agencies is UPSU should seek to develop and advertise opportunities for students to access advice and actually higher than this. support in dealing with issues arising between With little regulation from government to influence housemates. the private rental sector it must fall upon those organisations that can influence standards to do so. Choosing housemates appears to be as simple as Representing a body of more than 22,000 students, living with coursemates, or those that students have previously lived with in Halls. Moving into private UPSU are such an organisation. accommodation can often be difficult, and with a By encouraging letting agencies to be part of an large proportion of students signing contracts up accreditation scheme, UPSU can hope to influence to 7 months before moving into a property, there is
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Recommendations plenty of opportunity for relationships to change and break down before the move in date. Changes in relationships can cause problems for many students, who are likely to be living away from home, or the more supported environment of Halls for the first time. With issues ranging from general untidiness to violence and bullying, students must be supported in dealing with these problems. UPSU should work alongside Student Housing in running an awareness campaign, encouraging students not to rush into signing tenancy agreements An alarming number of students are signing tenancy agreements early in the academic year, and are viewing less than 5 properties before doing so. A campaign encouraging students to take their time in viewing properties, and not rush into contracts at a pertinent time during the academic year can be effective in better educating students about their options. This campaign could be organised around a Housing Fayre, and should coincide with marketing information around what to look for when viewing a property. UPSU should support students in dealing with issues with neighbours As well as running a ‘Good Neighbourliness’ campaign at the beginning of the academic year, UPSU should support students in resolving issues arising from complaints about neighbours. The Student Neighbour Liaison Service within the University supports local residents with similar issues, and as the representative body for University of Portsmouth students, UPSU can do the same.
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University of Portsmouth Students’ Union Cambridge Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 2EF T: 023 92 84 3635
E: hello@upsu.net
W: www.upsu.net
The research contained within this document was undertaken by the University of Portsmouth Students’ Union. It was analysed by the Vice President (Welfare and Community) to provide a relevant and unbiased response. If you would like further information or a break down of specific responses please email research@upsu.net with your requirements.