Student Accommodation Under the Renters Rights Act 2025

A hot topic since the recent passing of the Renters Rights Act 2025 (the “RRA”) is the impact it will have on student accommodation.

The changes brought about by the introduction of the RRA are intended to provide greater security for all tenants in England, but the changes introduced for student tenancies will balance that security with specific provisions to manage the unique academic year cycle – creating both challenges and new frameworks for operation on landlords. 

Under the new legislation, student tenants will fall into different categories with varying levels of protection. One of the key features of the RRA is the abolition of fixed term assured shorthold tenancies (“AST’”), which have been the default on most student lets governed by the Housing Act 1988. The AST regime will be replaced by assured periodic tenancies (“APT”) that will apply on a rolling basis. 

University-owned Student Accommodation

Lettings of university-owned student accommodation were already outside the scope of the Assured tenancy/AST regime under the Housing Act and will be outside the new APT regime as well. However, universities should maintain an awareness of the broader regulatory changes under the RRA – particularly where there are joint ventures with third party PBSA providers or some mixed portfolios which may include non-exempt properties.

In particular, universities operating under nomination agreements with PBSA providers should carefully assess how the RRA interacts with those arrangements.

Beyond that, the position depends on the type of student accommodation being let. 

Purpose Built Student Accommodation (“PBSA”)

The government’s intention is that PBSA will be largely exempt from the new APT regime (provided that the relevant PBSA provider adheres to the code of practice – ANUK/Unipol and UUK). PBSA tenancies that are granted after the RRA comes into force will be treated as common law tenancies in the same way as tenancies granted by universities, with only the basic protection for students from termination under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977.

This allows the grant of a fixed term tenancy aligned with the academic year and avoid the new rules imposing mandatory rolling tenancies and deposit protection requirements, as well as the benefit of recovery of possession outside of the confines of the new regime.

Accommodation will be considered PBSA for the purposes of this exemption if it is let or managed by a member of a government-approved student housing management code of practice. The ANUK/Unipol and UUK codes are currently government-approved, but further regulations are needed.

Again, regulations are awaited, but the government’s stated intention is for PBSA tenancies that are in place when the RRA comes into force on 1 May 2026 to become APTs along with all other ASTs.

However, PBSA landlords will be able to terminate these APTs under an amended form of the new possession ground 4A for non-PBSA lettings. Ground 4A is a new, mandatory legal ground for possession specifically designed for student accommodation in the private rented sector to assist in regaining possession of properties at the end of an academic year. 

Ground 4A is broader for PBSA than for non-PBSA student housing. It is not restricted to houses in multiple occupation (“HMOs”) and does not require termination between 1 June and 30 September – see more below. However, landlords seeking to rely on it will need to give tenants a warning notice within a month after the RRA comes into force.

Non-PBSA

Non-PBSA student lettings, such as accommodation let or managed by an entity that is not a member of a government-approved code of practice, HMOs or studio flats, will be APTs, whether granted before or after the RRA comes into force. 

This means that the tenancies will be rolling, with no guaranteed minimum duration, tenants will have greater flexibility to terminate tenancies with two months’ notice (increasing the risk of voids) and we anticipate that there may be a shift towards individual room lets over joint tenancies.

However, the new possession ground 4A will enable landlords to terminate student APTs of HMO’s between 1 June and 30 September inclusive in each year, in a bid to ensure that landlords can obtain possession to re-let to students for the new academic year, provided that certain conditions are met. 

The conditions for using ground 4A include that:

• the tenant was given notice before the tenancy was granted warning that the landlord might use this ground; and
• the tenancy was not granted more than six months before its term commencement date. This condition might affect the annual letting cycle. Currently, it is quite common for students to sign up to accommodation before Christmas for the following academic year. However, landlords might be reluctant to grant tenancies that far ahead if it means they won’t be able to use ground 4A should they need to.

In relation to existing tenancies, transitional provisions will apply to the above conditions so that:

• the warning notice will need to have been given to the tenant within a month of the Act coming into force; and
• the tenancy can, but need not, have been granted more than six months before its term commencement date.

Ground 4A cannot otherwise be used to terminate non-HMO student lettings. This means non-PBSA lettings of studio apartments and one or two-bedroom properties to students will be subject to the new regime in the same way as other private sector lettings, with no special ground for possession.

Transitional Period

During the transitional period all ASTs (including student tenancies) which begin before the RRA comes into force on 1 May 2026 will automatically convert to full assured tenancies under the Housing Act. In this period, even code subscribing PBSA providers will have existing tenancies converted to assured tenancies.

However, as discussed above, there will be a one-off application of Ground 4A to these transitional tenancies which will encompass both HMOs and code subscribing PBSA providers, as long as notice is given to the student tenants within one month of the relevant provisions of the Renters’ Rights Act coming into force – so landlords will need to act quickly and still ensure that they subsequently serve the requisite four month notice under Ground 4A. This one-off transitional application of Ground 4A will not apply to general rental properties let to students (i.e. non-HMOs) nor to PBSA providers who are not subscribed to one of the approved codes.

Why the RRA is a hot topic

• Operational changes: Landlords must adapt contracts and management practices for periodic tenancies and eviction rules. In all tenancies, written notice will be required to be given (either at the outset of the tenancy or within one month after the RRA is implemented) of a landlord’s intention to rely on certain grounds for possession

• Financial implications: rent caps and energy efficiency upgrades will likely require significant investment, in turn potentially affecting profitability. In addition, it is inevitable that landlords will face loss of rent for void periods, against increased costs for cleaning, repair and/or agent fees.

• Increase tenant turnover: landlords could be subject to an unpredictable income due to uncertain tenant durations, with the majority of tenants having greater flexibility to terminate tenancies on giving 2 months’ notice.

• Demand vs Supply: the changes could reduce the level of available student housing becomes less attractive.

• New private rented database: A property cannot be marketed for rent unless the landlord and property are both entered on the database.