As companies like HSBC leave Canary Wharf, students could move in, university accommodation search engine StuRents has found, noting that the Docklands finance hub is becoming one of the most in-demand areas for student housing.
Demand for housing in the district is around the same as that of Bloomsbury, home of UCL, yet there is currently has no purpose-built student accommodation anywhere on the Isle of Dogs, StuRents’ head of research Richard Ward told the Standard. There are applications for five blocks of student flats underway.
He sees an obvious opportunity for that to change as firms leave Canary Wharf for a return to the City. The area’s best-known tenant, HSBC, revealed it will be exiting its iconic skyscraper when its lease expires in 2027 to move near St Paul’s.
Ward said the surge in demand has been driven by regional universities opening London campuses, with many such as the University of Sunderland choosing to do so around the Docklands area, plus growth of the nearby University of Greenwich.
StuRents found that there are 6,100 international students between the University of Sunderland’s London campus and Greenwich, with those students most likely to need purpose-built student accommodation.
Ward noted that the continued strong business presence in Canary Wharf would also make the area a natural choice for those looking for business degrees: “If you’re doing something like a sandwich placement year, it’s very favorable.”
While Canary Wharf has seen an especially big surge in demand, Ward said there were signs of a shortage in student flats across London and the UK. He said there is a shortage of 140,000 student beds in London as a whole.
He said: “If you look at the market, quite simply, demand is outgrowing supply.”
He argued that planning requirements that were supposed to boost the amount of affordable student housing in London had instead made it more difficult to provide accommodation.
“One of the somewhat unique challenges is the London plan,” he said. “There are specific objectives around purpose built student accommodation. For a plan to get started, there needs to be a nomination agreement. It’s essentially an agreement that the university will take those beds.
“That legislation is there to try to encourage affordable accommodation, but you could argue that it’ll do the opposite.”
