Queueing through the night for student accommodation

A good camping spot at Glastonbury, the opening of a new Sephora store or the possibility of securing tickets to Wimbledon - some of the things you might expect people to queue overnight for.

But Bella Barnes, a first year accounting and finance student at Oxford Brookes University, said she queued for 24 hours just to secure a home for her second year.

Letting agent Finders Keepers said it was "launching" its student accommodation at 09:00 GMT on Tuesday, with applications accepted on a "first come, first served" basis.

Victoria Lyall, from the company, said they "actively discourage" people queueing and there were "plenty of properties to go around", but Ms Barnes said she did not feel she had a choice.

Ms Barnes said she and her four housemates initially found the property they wanted online.

"When we went to apply for a viewing for the house it said 'you need to come to our doors at 9am on Tuesday... it's first come first served'," she said.

They joined the queue in fourth place at 09:00 on Monday. On Tuesday morning, there were "at least 40 people" waiting for the letting agent's doors to open.

Ms Barnes said she and her housemates had taken it in shifts. She queued from 17:00 on Monday to 03:00 on Tuesday, and then returned just before 09:00.

She said they stocked up on blankets and food, and spirits overnight were "quite high".

"Music was playing, everyone was having a bit of a laugh," she said.

But despite that, she said it was "tough".

"When we left our toes were very cold," she said.

She said the housing situation in Oxford was "crazy", with people walking up and down the queue overnight to ask others what properties they were applying for - because there would be no point in joining if someone ahead of you had their eye on the same house.

Ms Barnes and her housemates managed to secure the rental house they wanted, but she said she was "assuming we're going to have to do this again next year".

Finders Keepers office manager Eleanor Madeley said there was "a lack of supply" of good quality student housing in certain parts of the city, resulting in "strong demand" when the properties were launched.

"Having said that, in previous years we have still had properties of all sizes available beyond this launch week and even up to August, right before term starts," she said.

Ms Lyall said the agency had done a number of things to make the process more "fair and efficient", including staggering the launch by property size and encouraging students to register some of their basic information in advance.

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