Where are all the affordable houses?

For Warwick students, finding somewhere to live for the next academic year can feel like a choice between price, location, and quality. Increasingly, it seems difficult to get all three.

Across Coventry and Leamington Spa, current student listings range from shared houses costing under

£100 per person each week to high-end en-suites costing well over £150. Leamington Spa has long been popular with Warwick students, but in recent years the balance has shifted towards Coventry, as new purpose-built accommodation has expanded the options available outside campus.

So, how affordable is student housing around Warwick really? And are students increasingly being forced to compromise on where, or how, they live?

What does student accommodation actually cost?

The answer depends heavily on where you live and what you are looking for. Warwick’s Studentpad data puts the average advertised rent in Coventry city centre at £164.50 per person per week in May 2026. The latest available figure for Leamington Spa is £133.84 per person per week, including utilities, from November 2025. The figures are not directly comparable, as they come from different dates, but they give an idea of the variation across the areas where Warwick students commonly live.

In Coventry, student properties currently advertised include shared accommodation for around £92 per person per week, while higher-spec en-suite properties can exceed £170.

Current listings show just how wide that range can be. In Coventry, student properties currently advertised include shared accommodation for around £92 per person per week, while higher-spec en-suite properties can exceed £170. In Leamington, listings range from around £109 per person perweek for a six-bedroom property to more than £165 for some accommodations. What students get for their money can also vary: bills, en-suite bathrooms, property size, and distance from campus can all affect the price.

Private rents also need to be considered alongside the cost of living on campus. For 2026/27, Warwick’s accommodation for returning students ranges from £130 per week at Rootes to £242 per week for a Cryfield six-bed townhouse. These are 44-week contracts, however, and the facilities and costs included vary between residences.

This trade-off between price and location is not unique to Warwick. A 2024 Guardian analysis of student housing noted that living further from campus can reduce accommodation costs, but that students also need to factor in transport costs and convenience. It also highlighted Coventry as a city that has experienced a surplus of student beds in recent years.

But have rents actually increased?

The answer appears to be yes, although the available data does not show a consistent year-on-year picture across the whole area. Warwick District Council found that average student rents in Leamington Spa had increased by 7.4% between 2022/23 and 2023/24. Its March 2023 analysis also found that 85% of advertised student properties cost at least £100 per person per week, while only eight properties were listed below £80.

Average advertised rents varied between the May and November 2025 snapshots, with some property sizes seeing increases and others decreases. This makes it difficult to draw a simple conclusion about rents across the entire student market.

The increase has not been limited to private accommodation. According to The Boar, average Warwick on-campus accommodation costs rose from £155 per week in 2022/23 to £198 in 2025/26, an increase of around 28%.

However, the available Studentpad data does not show a straightforward upward trend across every type of private property. Average advertised rents varied between the May and November 2025 snapshots, with some property sizes seeing increases and others decreases. This makes it difficult to draw a simple conclusion about rents across the entire student market.

So rather than being as simple as rents rising everywhere, affordability seems to depend heavily on the type of accommodation and where it is located.

Where are students living?

Leamington Spa has long been a popular choice for Warwick students, with its town centre, nightlife, and strong student community making it an attractive alternative to living closer to campus. A 2018 Boar survey of 130 Warwick students found that just under two-thirds of respondents lived in Leamington.

The council also noted a decrease in students living in Leamington compared with previous years, alongside growth in Coventry city centre and purpose-built accommodation around campus.

But the distribution of students has changed. Warwick District Council’s 2023 snapshot estimated that around 10,000 Warwick students lived in Coventry, compared with approximately 4,300 in Leamington Spa. The council also noted a decrease in students living in Leamington compared with previous years, alongside growth in Coventry city centre and purpose-built accommodation around campus.

What are students actually experiencing?

Rental prices can tell us what accommodation costs, but not what students have to give up to afford it. In a snapshot survey conducted for this article, 14 of 19 respondents said they felt accommodation in Coventry and/or Leamington was becoming less affordable. Seventeen respondents had searched for new accommodation for the 2026/27 academic year. Of those who gave a search timeframe, nine said it took one to two months to find somewhere, while four took more than two months. One respondent had still not found accommodation when they completed the survey.

Finding somewhere within budget also meant making compromises. Property condition was the most common compromise, selected by six respondents, while location, distance from university, bedroom size, bathrooms, and bills were each selected by five.

Competition was a recurring theme. One student said they had gone through “about a dozen housing options which immediately got sold after one viewing”, while another described the process as “a race to find accommodation”. For students looking in Leamington, the speed of the market was particularly noticeable: one respondent said properties they liked were often taken within days, despite starting their search in November.

Finding somewhere within budget also meant making compromises. Property condition was the most common compromise, selected by six respondents, while location, distance from university, bedroom size, bathrooms, and bills were each selected by five. One student said that, rather than living closer to central Leamington, they chose a property 15–20 minutes further away because it was within their budget. Another had wanted a house but ultimately opted for student accommodation instead.

Concerns about the quality of student accommodation are not unique to Warwick. A 2024 Guardian investigation reported complaints from students in several UK cities, including Coventry, about issues such as mould, damp, and pest infestations in accommodation operated by Unite Students.

The experience was not universal, however. Some respondents said they had found accommodation they considered affordable without making significant compromises. But across the responses, the issue was not simply whether students could find somewhere to live: it was what they could get for the price they were able to pay.

Why is finding affordable accommodation so complicated?

It might seem that the answer is simply to provide more student accommodation. But Coventry’s housing market is more complicated than that. A 2024 Coventry City Council study found signs of oversupply in purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) across the wider Coventry market, following substantial development in the city centre. More than 8,000 new student bed spaces had been delivered in the city centre and around Coventry University, with some providers offering incentives such as cashback, free bus passes, and group-booking discounts to attract students.

However, having more rooms across the wider Coventry market does not necessarily help Warwick students looking for accommodation in the places they actually want to live. The same 2024 study found that accommodation around the University of Warwick was comparatively undersupplied, with

2.6 students per bed compared with 1.70 across Coventry as a whole.

So, where are all the affordable houses? The answer is not quite as simple as there being too few student properties. There are rooms available across Coventry and Leamington, but affordability is about more than whether a room exists.

Warwick’s own plans also suggest that pressure on accommodation around campus is expected to continue. In 2024, the university outlined plans to increase student bed spaces on or near campus by more than 1,000 over the following decade.

This means that simply having more student rooms across Coventry does not necessarily make it easier for a Warwick student to find an affordable house in Leamington, close to campus, or in an area that suits them.

So, where are all the affordable houses? The answer is not quite as simple as there being too few student properties. There are rooms available across Coventry and Leamington, but affordability is about more than whether a room exists.

For the students surveyed for this article, finding somewhere within budget could mean moving further from where they wanted to live, accepting poorer property conditions, giving up a larger bedroom, or choosing student accommodation instead of a house. Rising rents and an uneven distribution of accommodation mean that having plenty of rooms across the wider Coventry market does not necessarily translate into plenty of affordable choices for Warwick students. The real shortage may therefore be of accommodation that offers all three: a price students can afford, a location they want, and a quality they are happy with.