Nearly 70 students in Dundee are currently engaged in the time-honored academic tradition of panic-moving their belongings after the owner of Marketgait Apartments - a city-centre block that was, until recently, being aggressively marketed as the pinnacle of student living - filed for administration in mid-July. The building had 68 rooms let at the time. Nothing says "welcome to university" quite like a frantic scramble for housing and a storage unit you didn't budget for.
The collapse is the latest installment in the UK student housing sector's ongoing tragicomedy, where companies go bust or quietly dump properties due to a heady cocktail of poor demand, oversupply in some regions, falling international student numbers (down for a third year), a cost-of-living squeeze, and higher borrowing and build costs - the latter exacerbated by the Iran war, which is apparently now also to blame for your dodgy en suite. While domestic student numbers are at a record high, a growing proportion are living at home, mostly because renting costs roughly the same as a small car, in what experts have dubbed "the rise of the commuter student."
A boom in new-build student housing has left too many tower blocks in places like Coventry, Leeds, and Nottingham, while Glasgow, Bristol, and London still face shortages. Modern, purpose-built housing tends to command higher rents than campus halls or private rooms, putting it out of reach for many domestic students - wealthier overseas students are the main occupants, presumably because they can afford the £199-per-week studio and the £165 en suite that Marketgait was pitching.
Three weeks before the owners filed for administration, Prestige Student Living was still on Facebook urging students to "secure your spot today" at Marketgait Apartments, a 116-room building less than a 10-minute walk from Abertay and Dundee universities, complete with concierge and a shared lounge with a pool table. "Looking for your perfect student home in Dundee?" they wrote on 23 June. "Marketgait Apartments still have rooms available - but not for long!" Spoiler: they were right about the "not for long" part, just not in the way anyone hoped.
On 15 July, partners from FRP Advisory were appointed to the Jersey-based special purpose vehicle that owns the redbrick block after its owners - real estate manager 90 North and Kuwaiti investment company Rasameel - failed to repay a £5.7m loan. Falling student numbers led to financial losses, leaving the company unable to fund essential fire safety remedial works. The building remains closed while its new owner, ATK Property, carries out the work. So much for the pool table.
James Elliot, 21, a recent Dundee university graduate and housing activist with Living Rent, said he knew people living in Marketgait who had to move out and were "anxious, stressed and shocked." "A lot of the students had contracts to stay there next year, but they were just told they had to leave in a month, you need to be out, you need to move your things out." Because many international students were back home, they couldn't do that in person - leaving them to pay a third party to store their belongings, which included everything they needed for uni. Nothing says "prime location, modern living" like paying someone else to babysit your pots and pans.
Prestige said the lets in place when Marketgait went into administration included 27 students who had renewed their contracts for the 2026-27 academic year. Of those, 17 had already moved out for the summer, and six others asked Prestige for details of a moving company and paid for it themselves. A Prestige spokesperson said the decision and closure were beyond the managing agent's control, adding: "Our team took immediate action to notify students, help them secure alternative accommodation in Dundee and return all payments made to us. We deeply sympathise with the students affected by the news and will continue to do all we can to support them."
This is just the latest failure in a sector that seems to be competing for the title of Most Creative Collapse. Amare Students, which ran a 64-room block in Birmingham, went into administration in January. Alma Place, a 393-room block in Belfast, was acquired by London-based investors the same month, just over a year after going into receivership. Several struggling providers have sought planning permission to open their buildings to non-students, including a 91-room block in Coventry where receivers want to let 50 rooms to city workers instead.
Meanwhile, Unite Group, the UK's largest student accommodation developer, is accelerating a sell-off of 15,000 to 20,000 beds after slumping to a £418m loss in the first half of the year. Its portfolio will slim down to 55,000-60,000 beds in 20 cities, compared with 29 at present, "to increase alignment to the UK's strongest universities, where student demand is robust and growing." Translation: the party's over, and the cleanup crew is charging by the hour.