Student accommodation is changing the face of Cardiff’s property landscape with its impact being felt in both the commercial and residential sectors, says a specialist in the field.
With thousands of square feet of secondary office space being converted into student accommodation, Caroline Jones (pictured), of property consultancy Bruton Knowles, believes it’s time to consider whether the trend is in the interests of either businesses in the city or the wider community.
She says that, along with reducing the supply of secondary stock in the city centre, the trend is sapping the life out of traditional student areas creating difficulties for small businesses and buy-to-let landlords whose income is dependent on the student population.
Consequently, Jones has called for the implementation of a full strategic planning policy to shape the delivery of student accommodation over the next five years.
“The conversion craze is affecting a number of our clients who are reporting difficulties finding, and in some cases holding on to, their properties,” she says.
“Office supply is being reduced as secondary premises are taken out of the market and converted for student accommodation, forcing firms to look further away from the city’s commercial core.
Describing the development of new student schemes as ‘piecemeal’ she says that SME’s seeking city centre premises are left with little option but to consider new space where rents are achieving £21 – £22 per sq ft.
But what are the consequences in Cardiff’s hitherto student hotspots? Jones says that as students are increasingly attracted to locations closer to town where they can enjoy better facilities and the city’s nightlife, areas like Cathays are being neglected.
“This trend is creating something of a vacuum in communities which for many years had relied on a high proportion of student tenants, leaving smaller businesses, private landlords and buy-to-let owners in the suburbs having to cope with entirely different classes of tenant,” she said.
Caroline Jones concluded: “We believe Cardiff City Council should be looking long and hard at whether the increasing number of student accommodation schemes being brought forward are in the best interests of business and also the wider population in the longer term.”
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