With the cheapest Jesmond flat listed on Unihomes costing £135 per week, and the most expensive costing upwards of £200 per week, Newcastle’s most prominent student area will quickly become inaccessible to students. For what you’re getting - mould, broken appliances, sometimes dangerous living spaces and landlords who don’t care - these sorts of prices are unacceptable. Even when rent is affordable, many students are disadvantaged by the determination of landlords to hang on to damage deposits - with swarms of students losing hundreds of pounds to ridiculous damage claims (such as not cleaning your mattress…). Rather than fall prey to money-hungry landlords, students would rather sit at home shivering than pay for an extortionate bills package!
Students who choose not to be subject to these horrible renting-prices are often excluded from the university culture that renting students experience, with the cost of living and rising rent prices encouraging more students to commute.
As a student you’re expected to attend all of your contact hours, participate in (and run) societies in order to improve your CV, complete all of your assignments at a high standard and socialise - on top of part-time employment. To handle all of these expectations is impossible! Students who choose not to be subject to these horrible renting-prices are often excluded from the university culture that renting students experience, with the cost of living and rising rent prices encouraging more students to commute. Commuter students then sacrifice a social life, with all of Newcastle’s clubs being in the city centre, in order to save money.
To continue raising rent, alongside the extortionate price of bills, is a quick way to destroy the student culture that permeates Newcastle!
In a city housing two separate universities, renting a student house is such an integral part of Newcastle life - with housemates becoming a lot of students' main social group. To continue raising rent, alongside the extortionate price of bills, is a quick way to destroy the student culture that permeates Newcastle! Whilst Newcastle is a relatively affordable city, in comparison to cities like Durham, asking students to deal with the stress of rising rent payments is inadvisable whenever their degree should come first.
