In brief
The Renters' Rights Act 2025 (the Act) represents the most significant shake-up of the private rented sector in a generation, but could it come at a serious cost to student housing? By replacing assured shorthold tenancies with rolling periodic tenancies and abolishing section 21 "no fault" evictions, the Act dismantles the fixed-term model that student lettings have long depended on to align supply with the academic year. Without it, operators face real uncertainty over when or whether properties will be vacated in time for the next intake. So, what provisions has the Government put in place to safeguard student accommodation supply? Do they go far enough?
The 'old' system
Student accommodation has historically operated in tandem with the academic calendar. The transient nature of student accommodation requires landlords (including those of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) and private rented sector student landlords) to be assured that they can recover possession at the end of a fixed term. Thus, student accommodation has typically been let on fixed term assured shorthold tenancies. When a fixed term expired, if the tenant(s) did not vacate, the landlord could regain possession by issuing a section 21 notice. Landlords had a clear mechanism for recovering possession at the end of the academic year - a prerequisite for the "in-year" re-letting model which depended on landlords being able to assure prospective incoming students that the property would be available.
Certain student tenancies have been excluded from assured tenancy status by schedule 1 to the Housing Act 1988. Most notably, universities and higher education institutions that let accommodation directly to their own students. This exemption has historically been a significant feature of the university owned halls of residence market, and this type of institutional student accommodation will continue to fall outside the scope of the Act.
The 'new' system
The Act abolishes fixed term assured shorthold tenancies entirely. Assured tenancies granted on or after the Act's commencement date (1 May 2026) must be periodic, and existing fixed term tenancies will convert to periodic tenancies in accordance with the transitional provisions.
This presents a seismic change to the student letting market. A periodic tenancy has no end date and runs (typically month to month) indefinitely until either the landlord recovers possession through a valid statutory ground, or the tenant serves a notice to quit. There is no longer a point in the calendar at which the tenancy simply expires.
For landlords of student accommodation, this creates an immediate and practical problem: if there is no fixed term expiry to rely on, how can a landlord recover possession at the end of the academic year in order to re-let to the next cohort of students? Without that ability, the entire in-year re-letting model, and with it the economics of much of the student letting sector, is placed under pressure.
Possession under the Act – a new ground for student HMO landlords
The Act does provide some assistance to certain student landlords, but it requires them to use a specific and more procedurally demanding mechanism to regain possession. New possession ground 4A introduced by the Act enables landlords of student HMOs to recover a property let to students at the end of the academic year, provided certain conditions are met. Specifically:
- The property must be an HMO (at least three unrelated tenants live there)
- The tenants must meet the "student test" when the tenancy is entered into (i.e. the tenants must be full time students, or the landlord must have reasonable grounds to believe that they will become full time students)
- Before entering into the tenancy, the landlord must have informed the tenants in writing of their wish to rely on ground 4A to recover possession to relet the premises to new students who meet the student test
- The tenancy must not have been entered into more than six months before the tenants are entitled to possession of the premises
- The landlord must serve at least four months' notice on the tenants seeking possession, which must expire between 1 June and 30 September in any year
Ground 4A is mandatory, meaning that the court must order possession if the above conditions are satisfied.
PBSA - the new code of practice exemption
The Act also introduces an important PBSA exemption linked to membership of an approved code of practice, ensuring that qualifying PBSA can continue to operate on a fixed-term common law tenancy basis. The policy rationale is that PBSA providers who are already subject to a robust, independently overseen management code provide students with sufficient protection through that alternative framework and need not be subjected to the same statutory regime designed for the mainstream private rented sector. PBSA developments are also often subject to planning conditions that restrict occupancy to students. If students remain in the premises after completing their studies and the PBSA provider has no statutory grounds to seek possession, they could unintentionally breach the student-only planning conditions.
The Student Accommodation (Miscellaneous Provisions) (England) Regulations 2026, published on 20 March 2026, clarified that the new PBSA exemption applies to student accommodation that is solely or principally occupied by students at an educational establishment:
- which is a member of one of the approved codes and that educational establishment manages or controls the building; or
- that is not itself a code member but is managed or controlled by a different educational establishment which is a code member.
The approved codes are (1) ANUK/Unipol Code of Standards for Larger Developments for student accommodation managed and controlled by educational establishments dated 5 September 2024, and (2) Universities UK/ GuildHE Accommodation Code of Practice for Student Housing dated 11 March 2025.
Transitional assistance for pre-1 May 2026 tenancies
The above targeted PBSA exemption is not retrospective. It only takes effect from 1 May 2026, so any PBSA tenancies granted prior to 1 May 2026 will automatically convert to assured periodic tenancies (along with most other private rented sector tenancies). The Government recognised that this would create an inconvenient two-tier system for PBSA providers that would qualify for the exemption after 1 May 2026. To alleviate this, the Act makes provision to allow qualifying PBSA landlords to use a "relaxed" transitional ground 4A for the 2025/2026 academic year, enabling those qualifying landlords to serve two months' notice on tenants to expire on any date, provided they notify their tenants of their intention to rely on transitional ground 4A prior to 31 May 2026.
Similarly, the Act enables student HMO landlords to rely on a relaxed transitional ground 4A for the 2025/2026 academic year by reducing the ground 4A notice period to two months, to expire between 1 July and 30 September 2026, provided the landlord notifies their tenants of their intention to rely on this ground by 31 May 2026.
Practical implications for landlords and agents
The Government has provided some important, targeted exemptions that will, to an extent, alleviate the effects of the Act's new periodic tenancy regime on the student accommodation sector. But there will be student landlords of properties that are not HMOs, and PBSA providers who are not accredited under the government approved codes of practice, who will no longer be able to offer fixed term, academic year-aligned accommodation. Assured periodic tenancies under the new regime will continue until the tenant serves two months' notice to terminate the tenancy, which they can do at any time, or until the landlord can rely on a statutory ground to terminate the tenancy.
This is likely to lead to voids over the summer months and uncertainty over the availability of properties for a new student letting. Other practical difficulties with periodic tenancies under the new regime are that a notice to quit by one student ends the tenancy for all, and landlords of assured periodic tenants will no longer be allowed to accept lump sum rent payments upfront at the outset of the tenancy, placing more pressure on the financial vetting process.
Conclusion
While the Act is bringing about important and worthwhile reforms, the cumulative burden of its practical consequences may prove sufficiently prohibitive that student landlords outside the protected exemptions choose to exit the market altogether, further constraining an already limited supply of student accommodation.
Some practical points for those managing student accommodation:
- Landlords should consider as soon as possible whether to rely on transitional ground 4A, which requires written notification of their intention to rely on this ground to student tenants before 31 May 2026 (and, following that, a separate ground 4A notice).
- Landlords should review their standard tenancy documentation for post-1 May 2026 agreements now. For future academic years, the initial notice required for ground 4A must be served at the point of granting the tenancy. It cannot be retrospectively provided. Precedent tenancy agreements and lettings packs should be updated before the first tenancy commences under the new regime.
- PBSA providers should not assume their accommodation is automatically exempt. Advice should be taken on how the accommodation is structured and the status of code membership before assuming the Act does or does not apply.
- Landlords should plan for longer possession timelines. Even where ground 4A is available and correctly invoked, possession proceedings may take time if a tenant does not vacate voluntarily.