Across Edinburgh and Glasgow, gleaming towers of private student housing have reshaped the skyline while quietly reshaping the lives of the students they were ostensibly built to serve. Rents in these purpose-built halls now routinely exceed the entirety of a domestic student's maintenance loan, transforming what should be a threshold into an obstacle. The market has followed profit toward international and postgraduate tenants, leaving Scottish students to choose between unaffordable rooms and impossible commutes — a structural mismatch between the city's newest buildings and the people its u
Scottish student rents soar as private halls boom, pricing out domestic students
Students like Lara Reader work 20+ hours weekly to afford rent, leading to exam failure and mental stress; many domestic students unable to secure affordable housing in their university cities.