{"id":343691,"date":"2025-08-14T11:10:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T11:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/343691\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T11:10:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T11:10:15","slug":"inside-housing-home-number-of-student-homes-approved-in-london-up-474-in-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/343691\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Housing – Home – Number of student homes approved in London up 474% in two years"},"content":{"rendered":"

News<\/a>14.08.25by\u00a0Zainab Hussain<\/p>\n

The number of student homes approved in London has risen 474% in two years and is forecast to grow further this year, a report has found.<\/p>\n

\"Urbanest<\/a><\/p>\n

Urbanest student accommodation in Kings Cross, London. Between 2021 and the first quarter of 2025, 106 planning applications for PBSA schemes were submitted in London (picture: Alamy)<\/p>\n

Sharelines<\/p>\n

\"Twitter\/XThe number of student homes approved in London has risen 474% in two years and is forecast to grow further this year #UKhousing <\/p>\n

The number of student beds approved in the capital rose from 2,621 in 2022 to 15,041 in 2024, according to planning consultancy Lichfields.<\/p>\n

That is a rise of 474% in two years, and well above the Greater London Authority\u2019s (GLA) delivery target of 3,500 beds per year set in 2022.<\/p>\n

Student bed approvals are forecast to hit 17,172 in 2025, the consultancy said, which would be a 555% increase over three years. There are currently 41 live planning applications for more than 19,600 student beds in London.<\/p>\n

The report was based on research conducted by Lichfields and discussions with professionals from the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) sector.<\/p>\n

The economic pressures of delivering other self-contained housing in London have also made PBSA an attractive investment opportunity.<\/p>\n

Flexible policies around location, bedroom sizes and amenity sizes within the GLA\u2019s London Plan published in 2021 have also allowed PBSA developers and operators to adapt to the market.<\/p>\n

The majority of London PBSA schemes (97%) provide at least 35% affordable housing, either through affordable student accommodation, on-site self-contained affordable housing, a payment in lieu towards affordable housing or a combination.<\/p>\n

Between 2021 and the first quarter of 2025, 106 planning applications for PBSA schemes were submitted in London \u2013 57% were approved, 5% were refused and 39% have not been determined.<\/p>\n

A lack of on-site affordable housing, quality of the internal accommodation and amenity space were common reasons for application refusal.<\/p>\n

Applications within inner London accounted for 63%, while applications for outer London accounted for 37%.<\/p>\n

Since the London Plan was introduced in 2021, 43% of local authorities have not approved any PBSA schemes. Of the approved schemes, 70% were with local authorities hosting higher education providers.<\/p>\n

Southwark Council approved the largest number of student beds with 3,758 purpose-built beds, followed by the London Legacy Development Cooperation with 3,203 purpose-built beds, and Ealing Council with 2,762 purpose-built beds.<\/p>\n

Most local authorities also had additional planning requirements \u2013 such as being in growth areas or town centres.<\/p>\n

Brent, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Waltham Forest and Southwark had the most up-to-date supportive policies around PBSA schemes.\u00a0Schemes also ranged from 27 student beds to 943 student beds, with the average being 413 student beds.<\/p>\n

Sign up to our new Living newsletter\"High-rise<\/a><\/p>\n

Picture: Alamy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News14.08.25by\u00a0Zainab Hussain The number of student homes approved in London has risen 474% in two years and is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-343691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115026816340887613","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}