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Rising concern about the negative impacts of students on ‘host communities’ has triggered debates about the consequences of studentification in the UK. For some commentators, purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) appears the panacea for studentification, as it offers the potential to reintroduce balance to studentified communities by redistributing student populations in regulated ways. This paper explores this contention, drawing upon focus groups and household surveys conducted in the vicinity of a PBSA development in Brighton, UK. The paper concludes that the location of this development in a densely populated neighbourhood has engendered adverse student/community relations, conflict, feelings of dispossession and displacement of established local residents. It is asserted that future developments of PBSA should be mindful of these issues and their implications for questions of community cohesion, quality-of-life and belonging in established residential communities. These findings are discussed in relation to debates of age differentials, segregation and new-build gentrification. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent discussions of studentification have emphasised the development of exclusive purpose-built student accommodation in city centres, shifting the focus away from Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) in established residential neighbourhoods. In this paper we explore the growth of student housing on a former social-rented (council) housing estate, and the social friction that it has created—arguing that the production of student HMO has remained prolific, and is pushing the studentification frontier into outer-city deprived communities. Drawing on empirical evidence from a former social-rented housing estate, we explore the recent emergence of a ‘student area’ where student occupation is having marked impacts on a relatively deprived local population. These findings have implications for urban policy making, given they highlight the negative outcomes of studentification in deprived communities, and reveal the challenge this poses for providing affordable housing, and engendering sustainable communities in university towns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]