Buying for your children at university

Tensions can run high with a teenager in the house, but for those aiming to go to university, spring can be particularly fraught. Sixth-formers are waiting anxiously to find out if they have been accepted for their degree course of choice – subject to A-level results in August, of course. But it’s not just exam stress and the race for a place that is on their minds: there’s also fierce competition for decent accommodation.

Research by Savills shows that, in London, there are almost 3.5 full-time students for every bed in purpose-built accommodation – which means many are reliant on private renting and, for the lucky ones, parental help.

Many students get a place in halls of residence for their first year, but their second and third years can be a time of down-at-heel digs. For parents, buying a flat or house near their offspring’s university will guarantee them hot water and can be a great way to help them onto the property ladder. But you’ll need to do your research. “Access to lectures, transport and night life is important,” says Richard Brooks, head of South West Residential Sales for Savills in Clifton, Bristol. “Plus, you’ll need to decide on any rent you’ll charge your child’s housemates and get some guarantors in place.”

Bearing all that in mind, here is our guide to six key university cities and tips on where to buy.

LONDON
Spread across the capital, and made up of 17 member institutions, the University of London offers more than 100 degree courses – and as many lifestyles. “The educational offerings are world-class,” says Claire Reynolds, head of Savills Mayfair office and co-head of prime central London residential, “but the chance to experience life in one of the great capital cities is equally exciting.”

Bloomsbury, Camden, Bermondsey and Brixton are all popular student locations, and Reynolds recommends an apartment in a secure block for those living away from home for the first time. In artsy Shoreditch or Hoxton, two-bedders in characterful converted industrial buildings start at about £900,000. New-builds such as 190 Strand are popular with overseas students – residents enjoy a 24-hour concierge service and use of a pool, a spa and a golf simulator.

View properties in London: 190 Strand

OXFORD
The city of dreaming spires is now also one of gleaming commercial space, laboratories and innovation parks – making this historic hub not just an academic high achiever, but a global economic powerhouse providing consistently strong capital growth.

The boho St Clement’s area and the thronging Cowley and Divinity Roads in east Oxford are a student’s dream, packed with bars and vintage shops. There’s plenty of attractive Victorian and Edwardian terraced housing stock here, and three-bedroom properties start at £700,000. Around the Oxford Brookes campus in Headington, near the city’s hospitals, smart two-bedroom apartments cost from £375,000.

View properties in Oxford: Reliance Way

ST ANDREWS
Undergraduate degrees at St Andrews are usually full-time over four years, meaning you’ll get even more use out of a privately owned home. Known as the “home of golf”, and with an atmospheric ruined cathedral at its heart, this coastal Fife town is one of the world’s most exclusive property markets.

“House-hunters make a beeline for the historic town centre,” says Jamie Macnab, head of country houses at Savills in Edinburgh. “The most sought-after homes are on North, South and Market Streets.” Prices here start at £500,000 for a three-bedroom apartment and £600,000 for a two-bedroom terraced house.

View properties in St Andrews: Old Seabox; Southgait Close

MANCHESTER
Universities in and around the north of England’s biggest city, which include the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan, Salford and the Royal Northern College of Music, are known for high student retention rates – many people stay in the area to live, work and party long after they’ve outgrown the student-union bar.

Beyond the student enclave of Fallowfield, Withington, Chorlton and Didsbury have a friendly, villagey feel. Expect to pay from £255,000 for a two-bedder in a converted period house or £675,000 for a four-bedroom Victorian semi. Jamie Adam, head of Savills Residential Development Sales in Manchester, suggests committed urbanites should head to Ancoats, Castlefield or the hip Northern Quarter in the city centre, where two-bedroom new-build apartments start at £300,000.

View properties in Manchester: New Cross Central

BRISTOL
Aspiring doctors, aeronautical engineers, vets and linguists head to Bristol, a vibrant city with two universities (Bristol and UWE) that has recently become a key European hub for the media and finance industries.

Richard Brooks recommends the suburb of Redfield, where streets of period terraced houses radiate off Church Road, which is lined with delis, wholefood stores and bars. Two-bedroom apartments here start at £315,000. If you want to future-proof your investment, take a 20-minute drive north from the city centre to Brabazon, a new mixed-use urban quarter set around a 15-acre public park. The development is a 20-year project, but a range of smart red-brick homes is already on offer, with one-bedders starting at £214,000, with great access to the universities and Bristol’s engineering hub.

View properties in Bristol: Brabazon; Thomas Street; The Atrium

EXETER
This compact riverside city packs a big punch, offering the perfect balance of urban and rural life – it has a Gothic cathedral, excellent eateries and Devon’s coastline and moorland on the doorstep. More than 20,000 students are packed into its historic centre.

Refurbished two-bedroom town houses on popular Howell Road and Hoopern and Longbrook Streets start at £260,000. And for postgraduates who need a sedate spot to focus on their thesis, the estuary town of Topsham, just a 20-minute drive away at the mouth of the River Exe, is full of listed waterside homes.

Wherever your child ends up, you’ll need to do your homework before you buy – but helping them onto the property ladder will gain you top marks all round.

View properties in Exeter: Park Place

Pictures from top: the University of St Andrews (Alamy); St Andrews students on the Pier Walk (Alamy); Radcliffe Camera, Oxford (unsplash); the University of Manchester’s Sackville Street Building (Getty); and the colourful streets of Bristol (unsplash)