For years, letting rooms to students was an almost fail-safe investment strategy. There never seemed enough rooms to go round, and student numbers were always growing. The academic year created a highly predictable timetable for one set of students to move out and another set to move in, so voids were low. And students might be poor, but parental guarantees made the risk of unpaid rent low. It seemed like the perfect amateur investment - easy to understand and hard to mess up.
But are these golden years now over? A bear case is building against the student lettings market, resting on the dual pillars of weakening demand and strengthening supply. That case runs as follows.
Students who started university this month will face a debt of £27,000 in tuition fees alone when they graduate - far more than the £10,000 or so owed by students who started last year. This extra cost is taking a heavy toll on student numbers, which are down by about 54,000 this year, according to initial estimates by Universities UK, the body that represents university management. Landlords will have to compete to attract this shrinking pool of tenants.