A RECENT study has revealed that student rent in Winchester is over £10,000 a year cheaper than private renting.

The study, conducted by AddLiving, compared student rental rates with local averages in cities across the UK and shows where students are getting the best deal compared to their local communities.

Winchester came second in the list of highest yearly saving by students compared to private tenants.

The average rent, per week, for a student living in Winchester was found to be £163.

In comparison the average rent, per week, for a private tenant was found to be £356, which was the highest cost in the top ten university locations listed.

This represents a weekly saving of £193 and a yearly saving of £10,049 for students in Winchester.

The highest yearly saving on the AddLiving study, found students at the University of Creative Arts in Surrey were saving £11,820 compared with private tenants.

Conversely, there are some universities where students are paying much more each year than their local counterparts, with rent in Aberystwyth, Carlisle, Bangor and Stirling costing more than £1,500 a year more for students.

Olly Roberts, graduate surveyor from AddLiving said: “As with house prices, the cost of renting is climbing across the UK and this challenge will be the same for students as well as those in the private rented sector.

“University is a costly time for students and many will be looking for the best way to make their loans stretch as far as they can.

“Encouragingly, this data shows that, for the most part, students are still benefitting from low-cost housing in most parts of the UK.

“This should mean that students aren’t having to compromise too much on quality to live comfortably during their studies.”