Students are paying 'up to £12,000-a-month' rent in London

Mayfair estate agent says it's 'great cash flow and additional security' for landlords

London's Mayfair area looks set to be popular with international students keen to rent expensive properties (Pawel Libera/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Students in London will be paying up to £12,000-a-month to rent properties across the city as the international student letting season gets underway.

The director of Napier Watt estate agents in Mayfair, Jonathan Adams, told industry site Letting AgentToday: “As the current wave of students come to the end of their tenancies, those who have rented before know it makes sense to take over a tenancy during the summer.

“These students are prepared to pay £6,000 to £8,000-per-month for a nice two-bed flat in Mayfair, Marylebone or Belgravia, rising to £12,000-per-month in Knightsbridge.”

With landlords able to earn a steady cash flow –because tenants are locked into contracts for a minimum period of a year – Mr Adams says property-owners shouldn’t be wary about taking on students and says the pros far outweigh the cons in doing so: “On the whole, they tend not to be badly behaved.

“Secondly, in Central London, they tend to be overseas students and will, typically, pay their rent half-yearly in advance and, occasionally, annually in advance.

“They often pay a deposit equal to eight weeks’ rent on top” as well, he insists.

But, is the current student accommodation situation in London getting out-of-hand?

Knightsbridge is another area where overseas students will come to to pay up to £140,000-per-year for student accommodation (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Prices like the ones these students are prepared to pay don’t take into account the day-to-day costs of food, clothing, books, and travel.

The student guide for the Study London website says that, according to government estimates, in addition to rent, “you will need approximately £104 per week for living costs, but this will vary depending on how much you socialise.”

A report published by the Money Charity in August 2014 claimed students were being “set up to fail” by expensive housing and living costs in the city.

Some bills, it said, were so large that they took up to two-thirds of the student’s living allowance, leaving them severely short on money for living costs.

One student from York, it highlighted, was left with just £21-a-week for food, books, bills and travel.