Student special: staying in good digs or a place fit for pigs?
When John Scarborough arrived at the “perfectly squalid” house his daughter had rented for her second year at Oxford Brookes university, his heart sank. “Rent is expensive for parents, or students if they’re paying it from their loans. It’s a 52-week commitment,” he says.
So when his youngest daughter Eliza was entering her fourth year at Exeter University he took the plunge and bought a student house. “I wish I’d done it sooner,” he sighs.
Student accommodation can be a sore point, not only for the tenants, but also for their parents if they are paying or subsidising the rent (£62.61 per week on average, according to student accommodation website www.studentpad.co.uk) After living in university halls for their first year, most students are expected to sort out their own accommodation for the rest of their degree and can find themselves renting dated or sparsely furnished houses …