Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA)

  Contains Options

The University of Southampton and Solent University, together with the city’s other Further Education colleges, cater for over40,000 students. There are halls of residence operated by the universities, private student accommodation in the form of shared houses (usually HMOs - Houses in Multiple Occupation), private halls of residence and developments of studio flats exclusively for students, often known as Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA).  In 2020 there were approximately 15,600 (10,800 in 2016) purpose built bed spaces in the city including university halls of residence. PBSA accounts for an ever growing proportion  of the student accommodation provision in Southampton. 

PBSA is managed communal accommodation, restricted to occupancy by students undertaking a full-time course of higher education, and it is the student’s primary residence. They can take the form of studio flats or study bedrooms in cluster flats, in either new build properties or conversions.   

A number of blocks of new purpose-built student accommodation have been constructed in the city centre and in the Portswood area of the city over the last decade.