Most UK universities agree that providing enough student accommodation, of the right quality, in the right location, and at a range of price points, is of vital importance to students’ experience and well‑being, and to recruitment and retention. This does not always translate into universities investing enough in it. What scarce capital they have faces stiff competition from their non-residential estates, and from priorities around investment in teaching, learning and research. We estimate that more than 60% of university- owned accommodation (c. 200,000 beds) is in what we call Quality C or D, i.e. falling below the level that students expect. The proportions are worse at the top and the bottom of the league tables, probably for different reasons. Construction inflation and interest rates have hampered universities’ efforts to remedy this situation. Pressures on viability, and the need to maintain affordability to combat the cost-of-living crisis, are driving universities towards refurbishment, where once they would have been readier to knock older halls down and start again. We estimate that it might cost c. £13.8 billion to bring university residential estates up to a decent quality, assuming all PBSA in Quality C can be refurbished, and all that in Quality D requires rebuilding. Naturally there will be exceptions to both; plus, universities are likely to take the opportunity to increase density at the same time. If we further assume that an average 60% uplift in the number of beds is possible for each redevelopment project, this would add a further c. 22,500 beds to such a capital programme, and a further £3.5 billion to the cost. Some cities still have a shortfall of student accommodation, which has pushed up rents. We estimate that c. 70,600 additional beds across the UK are required to bring those student accommodation markets with a student- to-bed ratio greater than 1.9 : 1 down to that level. The figure of 70,600 excludes our estimate of 36,200 new beds that may be required to replace those of poor quality, mostly on university campuses rather than the private sector. This brings the total new beds required to c. 106,800 . The demand and supply dynamics in each market may be EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A Student First Group research report | April 2026 | Page 3