Moving from school to university comes with a lot of changes – and where you live is one of the biggest. For some students, that means staying at home. For others, it’s renting a flat. And for many, it’s university halls: shared kitchens, unfamiliar flatmates, and yes, sometimes a bathroom queue.
University accommodation can also be one of the biggest costs students face, but the price of halls varies hugely depending on where you study. To understand what students are really paying, we looked at accommodation options across 144 universities in the UK.
Our research explores:
The most expensive accommodation options
The best value for money halls
How much extra students pay for features like an en-suite bathroom
We also surveyed 1,000 UK students and recent graduates to discover:
How much of their loan they spent on accommodation
If the cost of accommodation impacted their decision
What they did and didn’t enjoy about living in halls [2]
The real cost of university accommodation
Students spend an average of £192 a week on university halls
We found that the average weekly cost of university halls across the UK is £192.02. That’s equivalent to £7,681 per year on a standard 40-week contract.
Accommodation takes up the majority of student loans
According to our survey, students spend an average of 30% of their student loan on accommodation. One in five students spends 50% or more, leaving even less room in their budget for other living costs.
We also looked at the maximum student loans available (£13,762 in London and £10,544 outside London for academic year 2025-2026) to see how they measure up. [3] Even the cheapest rooms in London take up an average of 61% of the maximum loan, while the cheapest rooms outside London take up 48%. That means students have only half of their loans left for other living expenses once they’ve covered their rent, even on the maximum loan and in the cheapest rooms available.
To see the most up-to-date information about the options, students can use the student finance calculator, or check out what grants are available at their chosen university.
82% of students are overwhelmed by the costs
Our research shows a clear gap between what students expect to pay and what accommodation actually costs. Around 41% of students budget between £80 and £120 a week for rent, even though the average weekly cost is around £70 higher. Only 10% of students said they’d expect to pay more than £160 a week. With this mismatch between expectations and reality, it’s unsurprising that 82% of students say accommodation costs feel overwhelming.
But steep accommodation costs don’t just affect the weekly student budget – they can also influence where students choose to study. 82% of university students and recent graduates said that accommodation costs influenced their choice of university. So, where do you go to get good value?
Accommodation costs across the UK
Northern and Midlands universities offer the most affordable accommodation
The University of Bradford offered the cheapest accommodation in our study, at an average cost of £97.75 a week. Students can also find affordable options at the University of Wolverhampton (£110) and the University of the West of Scotland (£111). So for good value living costs, all roads lead North.
That said, cost is still a barrier for many. Almost a third of students told us they didn’t choose halls in their first year because they were too expensive.
The most expensive accommodation is found in London
In London, the average accommodation costs £280.80 per week, 65% more than those studying elsewhere in the UK. And students only receive 30% more funding when studying in the capital, to cover both accommodation and living costs. [3]
The most expensive non-en-suite room in our study costs £520 per week at Regent’s University London. Even the cheapest room here costs £410 – the highest baseline cost of the universities we looked at.
Students pay up to two times more for en-suite rooms
Students at Imperial College London pay an extra £196 per week for an en-suite room compared with the most expensive shared-bathroom option – the biggest en-suite premium in our study.
Sheffield Hallam University showed the biggest percentage gap. There, en-suite rooms cost 114% more than the most expensive non-en-suite rooms we looked at.
The reality of living in university halls
Around a third of students (34%) chose to live in university halls in their first year, compared with 30% who lived at home, and 33% who opted for private accommodation. For many, halls are as much about the people as the place. In fact, 62% of students said their favourite part of living in halls was making friends with other students – whether that’s through late-night corridor chats or friendships that start with “can I borrow your hair dryer?”.
But affordability often shapes those choices. Nearly half of students (48%) said they took on a part-time job during term time to help cover accommodation costs. With only 45% of the cheapest accommodation options in London covered by the minimum student loan (47% outside London), it’s clear that many students need to find ways to bridge the gap.[3]
Living in halls also comes with its own set of practical challenges. A quarter of students reported issues with irregular maintenance, while others mentioned mould (23%), plumbing problems (21%) and fire alarms going off in the middle of the night (24%). Hopefully not all at once.
University accommodation costs vary massively across the UK – from rooms costing around £85 a week in parts of West Yorkshire, to en-suite options in London priced at up to £625 a week. The experience of living in halls can look very different depending on where you study, but one thing tends to be universal: no matter the building, someone will always forget to wash up their mug.
Wherever you choose to live, a Monzo current account helps you manage your everyday spending to make student budgeting easy, and offers you savvy ways to save for next year’s accommodation.
UK residents only. Individual product Ts&Cs apply.
Methodology
[1] Prices are taken per week, regardless of lease length. Prices are for 2025-26 when available, otherwise the most recent figures available. Prices are for undergraduate residences. Prices are from either University-owned halls or official residence partners only, not from private landlords. Data gathered January 30th 2026.
[2] The research was conducted by Censuswide, among a sample of 1,000 UK University Students and Recent Graduates. The data was collected between 02.01.2025 - 08.01.2025. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS code of conduct and ESOMAR principles. Censuswide is also a member of the British Polling Council. Data can be found linked here.
The figures used apply to full-time undergraduate students not eligible for benefits in the 2025-2026 academic year. Calculations are based on the cheapest rooms available at each university, according to our research, and assuming an average lease length of 40 weeks.