University is an integral part of our social, academic, and personal character development. It’s safe to say that Edinburgh’s student housing market is nothing short of character building.
Edinburgh has been facing a pressing rental and housing crisis. Housing is scarce and demand is high due to the city’s large student population. With the average rent in the Edinburgh area rising in comparison to the rest of Scotland, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find accommodation. For students in particular, the requirement of an HMO license makes finding a flat all the more difficult and narrows their choice of letting agencies.
Scams and fraudulent landlords also prey upon students’ vulnerability. Students are quick to fork over large sums as deposits to secure flats they’ve been promised, resulting in disastrous consequences.
The struggle doesn’t end once students find a place to call home. Letting agencies in Edinburgh are notorious for taking advantage of the student population by raising rent prices and skimping on quality of accommodation and repairs. Many students are dissatisfied by the quality of service and express feelings of neglect, with the general sentiment being that this results from their student status.
The letting agency that continuously crops up in complaints is DJ Alexander. Popular among students due to its many HMO properties on offer, the agency has received mixed reviews. A post on an online forum from 2024 states: “they seem to prey on desperate people.” Indeed, with the desperation at which students scramble for somewhere to live, do letting agencies milk them for all they’re worth?
I spoke with Adi, a student who’s been living in Marchmont for over a year in a flat let by DJ Alexander. She describes them as “one of the worst letting agencies.” She tells me since moving in, her flat has experienced over 15 maintenance issues, which has “been quite a struggle.” Several of these have gone ignored by DJ Alexander and affected her and her flatmate’s living conditions.
Adi believes resolving these issues proved more complicated because of her and her flatmates’ student status. She says: “I think the agency doesn’t prioritise our complaints as much because we’re students. I think the idea is that because it’s students in a flat, they’re going to ruin the flat anyway so why bother investing money into it.” For most students, living in a student flat is their first experience in the private rental market. With letting agencies neglecting them like this, how is this entry into the ‘real world’ meant to set them up for confidence and success?
The maintenance issues voiced by Adi are tame compared to what some other students have faced. She says herself: “our flat is pretty average compared to others. We don’t have mould or anything.” One does wonder, though: if a lack of mould is the benchmark for appropriate living conditions, how low are our standards?
Another group of students, also under DJ Alexander, were forced to move out of their flat mid-year due to a mould problem that had gone ignored by the letting agency. The mould led to health issues for one of the tenants and the students were left incredibly angered by the situation, stating: “[DJ Alexander] were awful.”
Edinburgh flats also have the unique difficulty of being extraordinarily cold. As much as we’re told these buildings are built to withstand the freezing Scottish temperatures, when winter rolls around that seems hard to believe. Due to ever-increasing energy prices and tight student budgets, many refrain from turning on heating as long as possible. This makes for difficult living conditions that border on unsafe. Adi tells me: “Before we turned the heating on the flat was completely unliveable. We could see our breath indoors. Turning on the boiler was quite a struggle.” She and her flatmates had a difficult time getting DJ Alexander to fix an issue with their boiler, leaving their flat much colder for much longer than they would like.
Having an appropriate place to live should be a given. Unfortunately, it’s one many students have struggled with. As the cost of living increases, however, it’s difficult to envision a future where students are no longer at the mercy of exploitative letting agencies.
Image by Max Brown for The Student.