University students have queued on the street overnight to secure a home for next year in one of the UK’s most popular cities for higher education.

A BBC report shows that hundreds of students lined up outside lettings agency offices in the city after lists were released in a process known locally as ‘the drop’ – when much of the city’s accommodation for the academic year is listed at the same time.

As has been the case for many decades, first year undergraduates have guaranteed university-managed accommodation but have to find their own housing after that. Durham Students’ Union described the housing market in the city as “broken” and claimed increasing student numbers were “putting students’ welfare, and education, at risk”.  

The BBC report says queues started to form at lettings agency offices at 7.30pm on the evening before the release of the accommodation; footage from the BBC and other TV services show students with bedding, and in some cases camping in shifts with housemates. 

Engineering students Tom Richardson and Peter Thorne told BBC Look North they had queued for six hours for a house and still did not have a room confirmed.

Richardson told the corporation: “I think it’s quite simply there’s too many students and not enough houses. We decided to get up at about half three, get there for four and then queue straight the way through. It was absolutely manic – people had camping chairs, tables set out, loads of blankets – by the end, when people started moving it looked like a dump site.”

Thorne added: “We had people last week coming to our house saying ‘we have already signed your house, we queued since 5am’, and they had no choice but to sign a house in a panic basically, without even looking at the house. I think it’s terrible for the first years – the first two years for us were very easy to try and get a house and now it’s just such a change, it’s been quite bad, we still haven’t found one but we are hoping for the best.”

The university told the BBC that it had “engaged in a dialogue” with local letting agents and was in touch with the county council.

“The exceptionally early rush for accommodation was unexpected, and we have been working rapidly to communicate with and offer additional support to our students on this matter,” a spokesperson said.

The university added that it had “experienced exceptionally high demand” for university accommodation, blaming a higher student intake post-Covid due to “unexpected national shifts” in the grading of exams.