A lot of students are now starting a new school year and installing themselves at their place of study. But it is far from everyone who has found a permanent place to move in to. More than one in five, just over 22 percent, of students over the age of 19 have not yet found a accommodation for the fall term. And when the housing is in place, there are a lot of decisions to be made before they have a functioning home. This is shown in Mecenat’s survey about student housing conducted in August.
The housing situation for students is usually a recurring headache when approaching the course start. Media reporting so far provides a somewhat varied picture of access depending on where in the country they are studying. In Mecenat’s nationwide housing survey, more than 22 percent of students are over 19 years of age without permanent housing for the fall.
Those who have not solved their housing situation are looking forward to an autumn with couch surfing at friends, sublease or looking for other temporary solutions. This is while they queue in the local housing waiting list or for a student residence.
However, the largest proportion who have arranged their accommodation has a head-leasing contract. This is more common in smaller towns where access in many cases seems to be better. Not unexpectedly, the student housing situation also becomes more stable the higher up in the age groups we look.
The second largest group that has arranged the accommodation has made it fairly easy for them and lives at home with the family, and this does not only apply to the youngest age groups. However, most people have their own accommodation and are prepared to spend a fairly large part of their disposable income on the accommodation.
Nearly 30 percent pay more than SEK 6,000 a month for their accommodation. With a student grant of just over SEK 10,000 a month for full-time studies, this means a heavy expense. Not surprisingly, just over 70 percent, in our previous survey on extra jobs, responded that they work extra to get the economy together.
Cost is one thing that weighs in when students are looking for housing. Vicinity is another factor. They do not want to live too far away from their university. There is a very clear limit at one hour’s travel time. Only nine percent of the students can accept to commute further than that to get an accommodation.
There are many decisions to be made for the students and they are often made for the first time with their own responsibility. They need to choose insurance company, bank for those who lend to housing, a favorite store that can deliver an exciting interior for as little money as possible, grocery store, broadband, streaming TV and more. The list of decisions to be made can be very long.
The questions are posed to randomly selected students with a Mecenat card in mid-August. The survey has 964 respondents.
