The student accommodation market in Cardiff is not unlike the ones in other cities and towns of Britain – as all universities will not provide students with housing after they finish first year,students have to turn to the private sector – be it the landlords transforming residential properties into homes of multiple occupation and renting them through student letting agencies or large, privately-owned halls. However, neither of these of these options are without faults – while HMOs disrupt and push the communities in areas close to universities to the suburbs, private halls are often financially out of most students’ reach as they are marketed as as luxury accommodations and their architecture is often out of context with both its immediate and wider surroundings.
The development of the new high-rise student accommodation in Cardiff never stops. Will they help take some burden off the areas overfilled with students, or will it cause more harm than good?
As the new academic year is about to begin, Cardiff welcomes more than 60,000 students once again. But as we stress about textbooks, coursework, and meeting new people we will work with for the whole year, there is one additional burden that students have to face that often goes unmentioned – looking for a student accommodation.
The explosive rise of people dwelling in tents in Cardiff City Centre making news both locally and on a national scale is an important and welcome change – this is a difficult conversation, but one we cannot postpone any longer.
