Students sleep in queues outside letting agency to secure university accommodation
- 5 months ago
Dozens of students slept in queues outside a letting agency through the night to secure university accommodation.
Undergrads from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes took turns holding spaces in a queue at Finders' Keepers estate agents in St Clements, Oxford.
They were all desperate to secure a place to live in their next year of studies.
Some had queued for nearly 24 hours to get the perfect house or flat - having sat outside the agency on camping chairs until the 9am opening the next day.
Armed with blankets, multiple layers of clothing, hot water bottles and hot drinks, they braved sub-zero temperatures to hold a place in the line.
It is an increasingly common phenomenon across the UK due to student housing shortages.
Video footage shows the queue for the agency this morning (28/11) amassing to around 100 people - with dozens showing up from 4am this morning.
One pair of friends Milly Ashley, 19, and Will Johnson, 19, had held their first-place spot in the queue since 10am on Monday morning (27/11) to get their dream property.
Milly, who studies business at Oxford Brookes University in Headington, said: "We tried to queue last week from 4:30am and there were already people camping out from 11 the previous night.
"So, we decided to beat them this time around and go even earlier.
"We got Domino's, had a good chat. It's been okay really. But I can't feel my feet at all, and I'm wearing four jumpers, leggings, joggers and a coat."
Will, who studies property development at Oxford Brookes University, said: "Loads of people want to get the house we are going for - we've met 10 people today who are trying to get it.
"It's probably the best four-bed property, and in a good place too, so we've just sat on these chairs all night.
"It was absolutely freezing, I'm wearing three jumpers right now. It's so ridiculous that we have to be out here for so long - it's just a scam to drive up demand beyond belief.
"The guys at the back, they always end up with the worst houses ever because they have to - they can't get anything.
"Last week, we came at around 5am, and the queue was so large already that by the time we got in all the places we had wanted were already gone.
"They told us that we could view one place, so we walked up to the house for a quick look around. By the time we had got there, before we even got upstairs they called us to say that the flat had already been let."
In the end, the group successfully managed to get the house they wanted after the long wait.
Milly and Will were joined by their friends Lily Ward, 19, and Charlie Harms, 19, who plan on living with them next year - and stuck it out for most of the night with them.
The group were so prepared for the night in the cold, that they had even viewed the properties on their shortlist before they had even been made available to let by the agency.
Lily said: "We knocked on a few people's doors last week and asked if we could look around before the houses went up.
Undergrads from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes took turns holding spaces in a queue at Finders' Keepers estate agents in St Clements, Oxford.
They were all desperate to secure a place to live in their next year of studies.
Some had queued for nearly 24 hours to get the perfect house or flat - having sat outside the agency on camping chairs until the 9am opening the next day.
Armed with blankets, multiple layers of clothing, hot water bottles and hot drinks, they braved sub-zero temperatures to hold a place in the line.
It is an increasingly common phenomenon across the UK due to student housing shortages.
Video footage shows the queue for the agency this morning (28/11) amassing to around 100 people - with dozens showing up from 4am this morning.
One pair of friends Milly Ashley, 19, and Will Johnson, 19, had held their first-place spot in the queue since 10am on Monday morning (27/11) to get their dream property.
Milly, who studies business at Oxford Brookes University in Headington, said: "We tried to queue last week from 4:30am and there were already people camping out from 11 the previous night.
"So, we decided to beat them this time around and go even earlier.
"We got Domino's, had a good chat. It's been okay really. But I can't feel my feet at all, and I'm wearing four jumpers, leggings, joggers and a coat."
Will, who studies property development at Oxford Brookes University, said: "Loads of people want to get the house we are going for - we've met 10 people today who are trying to get it.
"It's probably the best four-bed property, and in a good place too, so we've just sat on these chairs all night.
"It was absolutely freezing, I'm wearing three jumpers right now. It's so ridiculous that we have to be out here for so long - it's just a scam to drive up demand beyond belief.
"The guys at the back, they always end up with the worst houses ever because they have to - they can't get anything.
"Last week, we came at around 5am, and the queue was so large already that by the time we got in all the places we had wanted were already gone.
"They told us that we could view one place, so we walked up to the house for a quick look around. By the time we had got there, before we even got upstairs they called us to say that the flat had already been let."
In the end, the group successfully managed to get the house they wanted after the long wait.
Milly and Will were joined by their friends Lily Ward, 19, and Charlie Harms, 19, who plan on living with them next year - and stuck it out for most of the night with them.
The group were so prepared for the night in the cold, that they had even viewed the properties on their shortlist before they had even been made available to let by the agency.
Lily said: "We knocked on a few people's doors last week and asked if we could look around before the houses went up.