Priya Nair was a university lecturer with one spare room. Twelve years on she owns 62 student beds across Nottingham and has quietly built her business around the tenants many landlords refuse: international students.
With new no-deposit and guarantor products opening the market to overseas renters, Nair says student property investment is misunderstood, undersupplied and stubbornly profitable. She talks licensing disasters, all-inclusive rents and why she checks a university’s finances before she checks the house.
How did this start?
I was lecturing at Nottingham Trent and let my spare room to a Malaysian postgraduate because she could not find a landlord who would take her without a UK guarantor. She was the best tenant I ever had.
I remortgaged, bought a four-bed near the campus and filled it in a fortnight. By 2019 the portfolio income passed my salary and I left teaching.
What does the portfolio look like now?
Twelve houses, all four to six bed student HMOs within walking distance of the two universities. Gross yields average just over 9 per cent, she says.
Everything is let on all-inclusive rents. Students want one number per month, and controlling the utilities means I control the biggest cost risk myself.
Why focus on international students?
Because demand is enormous and supply of willing landlords is not. Most of my competitors still demand a UK guarantor, which shuts out a huge cohort of well-funded tenants.
I take rent in advance or use guarantor products instead. My arrears over five years are close to zero, she claims. The market is finally catching up on this.
What is the biggest mistake you have made?
In 2018 I bought a lovely five-bed at auction and only afterwards discovered it sat inside an Article 4 area with no HMO permission and no realistic route to getting it.
It stood as a single let earning half its projected rent for over a year before I sold at a small loss. Now planning and licensing checks happen before I even view. The kitchen does not matter if you cannot legally fill the bedrooms.
Purpose-built blocks are everywhere and institutional money keeps flowing into professionally managed rental schemes. Are you worried about the competition?
No, because we are not selling the same thing. PBSA is £250 a week for a studio with a cinema room. My houses are £130 a week with mates in a proper home.
The squeezed middle of student budgets is getting bigger, not smaller. But I do watch the universities themselves. Before I buy another bed in any city I read the institution’s accounts, because my real covenant is the university’s recruitment, not the tenancy agreement.
What is next?
Eighty beds by September 2027, all in Nottingham. I would rather dominate one postcode than dabble in five cities. And I am trialling 51-week lets for postgraduates, which smooths the summer void completely.
What would you tell someone starting in student lets today?
Pick a city with two strong universities and check the Article 4 map before anything else. Then remember your customer is often a parent in another country. Answer emails at their time zone, not yours, and you will never struggle to fill a room.
