Where will you sleep? Student housing in 2026, from homestay to mid-term rentals

Ask anyone who studied abroad in the last three years what the hardest part was and the answer is rarely the classes. It is the room. In 2025 and 2026 the housing question finally reached the top of the political agenda in Europe and Australia, and a new rental format grew up in the gap. Here is what changed, what it costs, and how to book safely.

The big picture

In November 2025 the European Commission's housing task force, speaking at a student housing conference in Lisbon, recognised student accommodation as essential infrastructure for the first time, and the Affordable Housing Plan adopted in December 2025 explicitly mobilises investment in student housing, with a shortfall of more than three million beds across Europe by 2030. Investors noticed: in the same weeks, one operator bought 2,300 beds in Spain and France, and in January 2026 the largest British operator completed a GBP 723 million purchase that took it to 71,000 beds.

Ireland, where the shortage is most painful for language students, announced a ten-year strategy in March 2026: 42,000 new beds by 2035, most of them on campus land, plus a tax-free rent-a-room scheme to bring private rooms onto the market. Australia's purpose-built student accommodation pipeline is set to reach 144,300 beds by 2027, and the government tied its 2026 student intake to housing delivery.

None of that helps you next month. But the direction is right, and the numbers below are what the market looks like today.

The three classic options, with 2026 prices

Homestay: a room in a family's home, usually with breakfast and dinner, arranged by the school. Ready on arrival, the best option for a first month and for practising the language every evening.

• Dublin: about EUR 280 a week, with a summer supplement.
• London: GBP 205 to 335 a week depending on zone and meals.
• Toronto: CAD 325 to 390 a week.
• Sydney: roughly AUD 300 to 450 a week.
• Malta: about EUR 350 to 450 a week for a single room.
• Madrid: EUR 250 to 330 a week.

Residence: a student building with single or twin rooms, shared kitchens, sometimes meals. Bookable from abroad, social, more expensive per week than a shared flat but with no deposit hunting.

• Dublin EUR 265 to 400 a week; London GBP 300 to 470 for private residences; Toronto CAD 350 to 675; Sydney AUD 350 to 650 for a studio; Malta EUR 210 to 515 depending on shared or single room and season.

Shared flat: a room in a house with other students or locals, found after arrival through the school's notice board and community groups. The cheapest per week, and the one that takes time.

• London GBP 210 to 265 a week; Sydney AUD 250 to 450; Madrid the equivalent of EUR 115 to 140; Dublin is the outlier, where a private room can cost as much as a residence.

The new option: the mid-term rental

Between the tourist flat and the year-long lease, a market of furnished rentals for one to six months, bills included, has grown quickly: the main European platform listed more than 35,000 such rooms and flats in 25 cities in mid-2026, almost all furnished and most with bills included, and its bookings jump every August and September. In the United States, bookings of 28 days or more have more than doubled since 2019. For a twelve-week course this is often the right format: you sign online before you fly, you know the total price, and you avoid both the tourist premium and the twelve-month contract.

Six rules against rental scams

Rental fraud grows every year and it targets exactly you: someone abroad, in a hurry, paying from a distance. The consumer protection agencies' guidance in 2026 boils down to this:

• Reverse-image-search the photos; a beautiful flat that appears on three sites with three prices is not for rent.
• Insist on a live video tour, or ask the school to check the address. A landlord who "is abroad and cannot show it" is the classic script.
• Never pay by wire transfer, cryptocurrency, gift cards or instant payment apps before a signed contract. Use traceable payments.
• The contract must name the deposit, where it is held and how it is returned; in the UK and Ireland deposits are protected by law.
• Do not send passport scans or card details before you have viewed the property.
• Book the first weeks through the school. Every accredited school has a housing office, and a homestay for the first month buys you the time to find a room the safe way.

Housing is the part of studying abroad that improved least in the last decade, and the part that governments have finally noticed. Until the new beds arrive, the safest plan is the old one: land in a homestay, look with your own eyes, and pay only for what you have seen.

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