A graduate forced to leave York due to spiralling property prices has said the city is becoming a ‘little London’ where few can afford to live.
She and her flatmates had to quit York after their rent and bills rocketed.
Lucy – we are not revealing her real name – got in touch to tell her story as part of our York’s Property Crisis series.
She told us: “I moved to York for university four years ago, spending my first year in the cheapest halls for a price that was around what I expected.
“The next year I moved in with my partner and one of our friends in a three bed house; two bed houses are none existent for students and it was nice to still get that university housemate experience.
“We’ve now stayed in the same house for three years.
“Despite no work other than general maintenance being done on the house, the rent has increase from £410 to £540 per person per month over the last three years, no bills included.
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“With electric increasing from £77 to £180 a month and two of us have now graduated, these price increased with the added burden of council tax means we cannot afford to stay.”
Lucy said the student who was still studying now has a 1½ hour commute from their home town to university “because the price of rent there plus train fair actually worked out cheaper than York rent alone (and with the price of trains, that’s saying something!)”
She added: “Student rent prices in York, especially following the post-Covid over-subscription of first year students leaving some in Hull University halls, have become ridiculous with the increasing competition.
“York has now become ‘little London’, and neither student loans nor landlords care about this.”
We revealed at the weekend that rents in York have shot up by nearly ten per cent in the last year.
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