Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) Occupancy Survey 2023-24 Academic Year

The Nottingham PBSA Occupancy Survey is now in its 10th year and forms part of our ongoing Planning for Student Accommodation in the City.

The previous results can be found on our PBSA Occupancy Survey page. The results of the survey have been crucial to understanding the PBSA market and have allowed the City to be ambitious in promoting PBSA to ensure there is a sufficient supply of bedspaces to meet future needs of students.

In turn, there is evidence to show that this policy is helping to rebalance communities where there are existing high concentrations of students. As a result, in recent years Nottingham has had one of the highest delivery of new PBSA provision outside of London.”

However, as the market matures it is becoming increasingly important that new PBSA provision meets the needs of students who are looking for a shared lifestyle who often choose to live in houses in multiple occupation.

The first stage to confirm your contact information as well as the overall number of schemes you operate, the breakdown of these schemes in terms of bedspaces (including studio and cluster beds) and any changes to these details is now complete.

This second stage is to ask about the occupancy rates for those schemes you have confirmed, as well as the origin (e.g. home or international) and type of students (first years, ‘returners’, postgraduates etc). It is appreciated that this is sensitive commercial information and only aggregated market wide results will be made public.

Complete Part 2 of the PBSA 2023-24 Occupancy Survey

You are helping the Council to have a greater understanding of the PBSA market.  You will also be one of the first to receive aggregated results when these are publicly available.  

Complete Part 2 of the PBSA 2023-24 Occupancy Survey

With the significant growth in student numbers over the last decade, Nottingham City Council has promoted the growth of PBSA in appropriate locations. The aims being to increase choice, improve the quality of accommodation for students and to provide an alternative to traditional housing, thereby encouraging a re-balance in some areas of the City where there are the highest concentrations of students.

For the last couple of years, the number of on-street Student Council Exempt properties (mainly Houses in Multiple Occupation) have seen a fall of approx. 2% each year and this could be a sign that the Council’s policy is starting to have an impact.  Student numbers had also been on the rise in previous years and these increases had been exceeding the increases in new PBSA bedspaces.  In the current academic year there has been a fall in overall student numbers requiring accommodation, but at the same time the number of additional PBSA bedspaces has continued to grow.

The Council is keen to continue to monitor the provision of PBSA including new developments, those with planning permission and importantly, any vacancies in the existing stock.  For the 2023/24 academic year almost 1,855 additional bedspaces have been provided in new PBSA making a total of almost 31,300 bedspaces across the City.  In addition, there is a pipeline of around 8,000+ bedspaces that may come forward over the next three years (made up of schemes with or very likely to get planning permission).

Complete Part 2 of the PBSA 2023-24 Occupancy Survey

The survey is being carried out in two stages this year. The first stage has already been undertaken to ensure that our data is correct including the number of schemes run by each operator and then importantly the details about the schemes including the scheme’s name, address and breakdown of bedspaces. 

This second stage now seeks to capture occupancy details. It is important that you respond based on maximum occupancy for the current academic year 2023-34 rather than on current occupancy.  

For more information including a copy of our privacy notice and how we process your data please go to www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/localplan.

Complete Part 2 of the PBSA 2023-24 Occupancy Survey

For the past 9 years the Council has carried out an annual Vacancy Survey on the occupation levels of Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA).

Despite a significant growth in the amount of PBSA bedspaces there are no signs that this growth has led to a fall in occupation levels.  In fact, for the 9 years of the survey the vacancy levels have been below 2%*.  The results are set out below.  More detailed information is available by accessing the 2022-23 results. 

* Pandemic Year 

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact localplan@nottinghamcity.gov.uk in the first instance.