Conclusions on House Hunting for 2011-2012

July saw lettings increase following a quieter letting period in the first 6 months as a consequence of:

• The early arrival of some internationals and postgraduates
• Returners wishing to secure accommodation before leaving for the summer break

The latter part of August saw a sharp rise in lettings as demand from 1st years for rooms in halls exceeded supply. As a consequence over 400 students attended 4 Leeds Met/Unipol organised mixing days and found accommodation in the smaller property market. Two further events were held, 1 for Leeds University and 1 for Leeds Trinity where students at both events successfully secured accommodation in the private rented sector.

In Summary:

• 3,960 bed spaces had been let compared to 1,434 over the same period in 2010. Most of these in Unipol Code properties as individual lets.
• Larger houses in Headingley have been popular, many of which are now let.
• Searches on the Unipol website in August alone saw an 80% increase on 2010. Looking at July, August and September together there has been a 47% increase, 119,538 searches having been made compared to 81,538 in 2010.
• University and Private halls are full, albeit a few rooms becoming vacant following a few ‘no shows’.
• Other indicators such as web hits and hosts are showing healthy increases. For example, the Unipol website saw 10.5 million hits between July and September in 2011 compared to 9.1 million in 2010, a 16% increase.
• There are currently 1,544 bed spaces to let on the Unipol web site, this compares with 2,341 at the same point in 2010.

In June it was predicted that by the end of 2011 there would be 4,744 bed spaces in surplus. This prediction has now been reduced to 3,80

Second Semester Lets (January 2012)

There are normally a significant number of second semester lets (about 400) in January each year which are taken by the educational institutions filling up voids. In January 2012 more of these lets are likely to enter the private sector.