BOURNEMOUTH University is working to reduce the number of houses of multiple occupancy currently used by its students across the town.

The Wallisdown-based university, which also has a campus at Lansdowne, currently has 19,829 registered students - 16,788 full-time and part-time on campus - made up of undergraduates, postgraduates and postgraduate research students.

Of those students, 3,699 students - largely made up of first-years - live in halls of residence. Taking into account the number of students registered on work placements that could take students away from the area it means that somewhere between 69 per cent and 78 per cent (11,643-13,089 students) live off-campus in a mixture of HMOs, private rentals and at home.

However, fewer HMOs could be used by students as the University and Bournemouth council decrease the amount in the area.

Despite this, the university has predicted a shortfall in housing as the number of students looks set to increase by 2020/21.

In a report produced assessing student accommodation demand, the university said: "The lack of guaranteed purpose built accommodation has a particular impact for returning undergraduate students who have no option but to live in non-student accommodation.

"Most returning students, as with first years who cannot access halls accommodation, focus on the housing accommodation in Winton or Charminster. As there has been an increase in the number of new students at BU over the last three years, this has led to a greater demand for HMO type housing in residential areas to accommodate the growth in numbers as students work their way through the system. This is at a time when a number of HMO landlords are withdrawing from this market and therefore there are fewer properties available for rent.

"It is also BU's intention to reduce the number of houses of HMOs used by its students [in] a move that is partly driven by the reduction of stock in the HMO market.

"The key statistic is the potential shortfall in BU accommodation supply. The shortfall increases year on year to over 2,500 by 2020/21 education year.”

When contacted by the Daily Echo the university was unable to confirm how many students were registered as living at HMOs in the town.

The university was also unable to confirm what options are being reviewed to house the increasing number of students, adding that the aim is "to reduce the dependency on HMOs and give our students a greater choice of where they want to live. We are aware of the council’s plans to reduce HMOs in the local area and this is part of the context, and would give our students options and potentially reduce dependency on HMOs for them."

By way of comparison, Arts University Bournemouth has 704 rooms in halls of residence, and around 3,550 students registered this year.

A new halls of residence – a block of up to 550 beds – is planned on the site of the building at 21 Lansdowne Road and Cranborne House car park, by Global Student Accommodation.

There are also plans to demolish Hendy House, at Christchurch Road, to make way for a seven-storey block of 213 flats by developer Victoria Hall Management Limited.

Mark Axford, planning policy manager for Bournemouth council, said: "The council was aware of the negative impacts that concentrations of HMOs can have. Should a property owner now want to change a house to an HMO planning permission is required. The Local Plan includes a borough wide policy guiding how these applications are determined. The policy sets a threshold of no more than 10 per cent HMOs in an area in order to prevent further concentrations of HMOs emerging with the aim of managing negative impacts on the local community.”

Ward councillor for Winton East, Don McQueen, said: "I think it is great that more students are coming to the town and clearly we need to get the right balance of HMOS. I'm fully in favour of reducing the number of HMOs."