by Dozens of students slept in queues outside a rental agency all night to get accommodation at the university. Students from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes took turns taking up spaces in a queue at Finders’ Keepers estate agency in St Clements, Oxford. They were all desperate to get a place to live for their next year of study. Some had queued for almost 24 hours to get the perfect house or apartment, and had sat outside the agency on camping chairs until the opening at 9 a.m. the next day. Armed with blankets, several layers of clothing, hot water bottles and hot drinks, they braved sub-zero temperatures to keep a place in line. It is an increasingly common phenomenon across the UK due to the shortage of student housing. Video footage shows the queue for the agency this morning (28/11) with around 100 people, with dozens turning up from 4am this morning. A pair of friends, Milly Ashley, 19, and Will Johnson, 19, were first in line from 10am on Monday morning (11/27) to get their dream property. Milly, who studies business at Oxford Brookes University in Headington, said: “We tried to queue last week from 4.30am and there were already people camping out from 11 the night before. So we decided to beat them this time and go even before. “We got Domino’s, we had a good talk. It was really good. But I can’t feel my feet at all and I’m wearing four jumpers, tights, joggers and a coat.” Will, who studies property development at Oxford Brookes University, said: “A lot of people want to get the house we’re looking for; Today we have met 10 people who are trying to get it. “It’s probably the best four-bedroom property, and in a good location too, so we sat in these chairs all night. “It was so cold, I’m wearing three sweaters right now. It’s so ridiculous that we have to be here so long; It is simply a scam to increase demand beyond belief. “The guys in the back always end up inventing the worst houses because they have to: they can’t get anything. “Last week we arrived around 5 in the morning and the line was already so long that when we arrived not all the people were there. places we wanted. They told us we could see a place, so we walked up to the house to take a quick look. When we got there, before we even got upstairs, they called us to tell us that the apartment was already rented.” In the end, the group managed to get the house they wanted after a long wait. Milly and Will were joined by their friends Lily Ward , 19, and Charlie Harms, 19, who plan to live with them next year, and stayed with them most of the night. The group was so prepared to spend the night in the cold, they had even seen the properties on their shortlist before the agency made them available to rent. Lily said: “We knocked on some people’s doors last week and asked if we could look around before the houses were built. “However, they have spent months looking for houses, and we had to find out well in advance which houses would be available today by asking friends and online. We know some second years, so we called them and asked if they knew when their houses were available “. Will said Finders’ Keepers officers “love” the queues and find the whole situation quite funny. And he added: “They love it.” They were literally the last ones to leave work and they came out laughing at us, and one of them said, “Have a good cold night, guys, see you in the morning.” “I don’t think they have much sympathy, I think they just find it all a bit funny – to be fair, I would.” Further down the queue, Oxford University students Tom, 22, and his friend Jared, 22, were also hoping to get their dream home for themselves and their friends. Tom, a PhD student in planetary sciences, said he didn’t mind waiting in line because they did it voluntarily. He said: “We weren’t that bad, but yesterday at tea time we heard the queue was already growing, so we stopped what we were doing and settled in. “We haven’t been here all night. We’ve been here for about six hours, we’ve been rotating in two and a half hour shifts. I had to get up very early to get back here but I slept all night so everything was fine. “My feet are pretty cold, but we decided to do it. It’s really cold, but we can leave whenever we want; if we weren’t waiting, we’d still get a spot, but it wouldn’t be as nice.” “It’s a pretty stupid system, you’d think they’d have a digital queue or something, but I don’t know if this is just an artefact of the old way people used to get student accommodation or something. “Ultimately, yes “We wait here or have a fixed queue, the result will be that they will always sell the houses they own anyway, so it is a bit unnecessary to make us queue.” Jared, who studies modern Middle Eastern studies at St Cross College, added: “Basically, we’re the ones who decided that, yes, it’s a little bleak, but we’d rather wait here for a night and have a nice place locked in. “I could leave it for a long time, there are usually still houses available until May. I just got to a house in June last year, so this year we decided to do it early. “If you sort it in November, it takes away that stress, it’s nice to know that everything is sorted and done, so you don’t have to think about it for the rest of the year . “I suppose the agents get useful information about which properties are most in demand this way, so that next year they can ask for more rent or less. “We have planned this in advance with a short list, you have to come prepared, but we are in seventh or eighth place in the queue, so we should be fine.” Oxford Brookes paramedic students Emma Baker and Ella Givens arrived later than most this morning and ended up at the back of the queue. The couple, who wait find a place in Cowley, said they were “surprised” to see such a long queue when they arrived, and could try to queue overnight if they don’t get a property today. Emma, 18, said: “We were told There were people queuing overnight for five- and six-bed houses, but we didn’t expect such a big queue for four-bed houses as well. “We weren’t really prepared to queue for four or five in the morning – there are some nice houses here, but I think it’s a bit much. “Hopefully we’ll get somewhere, it’s a bit ridiculous to have to queue for so long, especially as Oxford It’s such a student city.” Ella, 19, said: “Our campus is a little further away from the normal student areas of the city, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll get somewhere despite the queue. “I don’t think we realized how bad the three- and four-bedrooms were.” They were going to want houses; Maybe we were fooling ourselves a little. “If there’s a nice house we really want and we don’t get anything today, I think we’ll try to get in line. I’m willing to try, depending on whether our friends would do it, too.”
