Durham University has teamed up with new partner, Housing Hand, to give students easier access to renting private property by offering a Rent Guarantor scheme. The scheme will benefit both students from the UK and from overseas by providing a UK-based guarantor in order to rent a home. This will avoid the need to produce 6 or 12 months’ rent upfront, which is often the case when there is no sufficient guarantor in place.
“Durham University is pleased to be working with a leading provider of rent guarantor services to enable students to access private sector accommodation where a UK guarantor is required. Housing Hand is the UK’s largest rent guarantor service and they guarantee thousands of tenancies across the UK. Housing Hand work directly with Universities, Landlords, Letting Agents and private purpose built student accommodation providers. As a Durham University student, you can now access Housing Hand’s services at a specially negotiated rate that can be spread across monthly payments.”
Jeremy Cook OBE, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (College and Student Experience), Durham University
“We are delighted to be partnering with Durham University, which means their students from the UK and abroad can enjoy a cost-effective solution when they need a guarantor in the private rental sector. It also allows local accommodation providers access to a wider pool of students at a preferential rate.”
James Maguire, Head of Sales and Business Development, Housing Hand
The new partnership comes at a time when demand from international students for private sector accommodation is rising rapidly. While EU student numbers in the UK dropped by 2% in 2019, those from outside of the EU rose rapidly, by 17%. Durham along with many other universities are keen to do all they can to remove the barriers to renting that many of these international students face.
Students from China are leading the charge, with the number studying in the UK having risen every year since 2007. Since 2012, the number of students coming to the UK from China alone has exceeded the number of those coming from all EU countries, according to the Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA). In fact, Chinese students accounted from more than 25% of all non-EU students studying in the UK in 2019.
While Chinese students are leading in terms of overall numbers, it was Indian students who showed the largest increase in terms of the pace of growth between 2018 and 2019, more than doubling in number. That compares to a 20% increase in Chinese students, a 20% increase in African students and a 14% uplift in students from ‘other Asian’ countries over the same period, according to HESA data.
This partnership will enable every student to use Housing Hand as a guarantor when securing accommodation in the private rented sector. The guarantee covers not just missed rent payments to landlords, but also damages and dilapidations, providing landlords with the reassurance that they won’t end up out of pocket by taking on a student as a tenant.
Through the new partnership, every Durham University student can access Housing Hand’s service at a reduced fee. Local landlords, meanwhile, can enjoy access to a wide pool of potential renters, with no financial risk.
Housing Hand has been the UK’s leading rental guarantor service for the past nine years. The company is proud to maintain a 100% pay-out rate on all valid claims, providing peace of mind for landlords that they will still get their rent paid, even if the tenant defaults. The Housing Hand service is available to all UK universities and their students, whether from the UK or abroad.
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