Families

A London home for your student child:
is council tax due?

On a London home bought for a studying child, council tax depends on who lives there, not on who owns it. This guide answers that question first, then covers the journey to campus, lease conditions and what happens after graduation.

Last checked: 15 October 2026 · About 8 minutes to read
A domed stone building with columns on the University of Greenwich campus
University of Greenwich, south-east London. Photo: Sand Crain, Unsplash (Unsplash License).

Short answer

If everyone living in the home is a full-time student, no council tax is due; if a bill arrives, you apply to the council for an exemption. To count as full-time, the course must last at least a year and involve at least 21 hours of study a week.

If a non-student lives there too, a bill is due; if they are the only adult who is not a student, it is 25% off. The student exemption ends at graduation. If the home is furnished and nobody’s main home, the council can charge a second homes premium; Camden and Tower Hamlets have charged 100% since 1 April 2025.

Who pays council tax?

In London, council tax is paid to the borough the home is in. GOV.UK says you will usually have to pay if you are 18 or over and live there. If nobody lives in the home, or it is a house in multiple occupation (HMO), the law makes the owner liable.

The amount depends on the band. In England, bands are based on what the home would have sold for on the open market on 1 April 1991. You can find a home’s band by address with the GOV.UK council tax band checker.

If only students live there

GOV.UK says households where everyone is a full-time student do not have to pay council tax; if you do get a bill, you can apply for an exemption. To count as full-time, the course must last at least a year and involve at least 21 hours of study a week; the regulations also require at least 24 weeks a year.

Councils ask for a student certificate from the place of study. Camden, for example, asks for it to be uploaded through the council account and does not accept offer letters, acceptance letters or CAS statements.

If a non-student lives there too

If anyone in the household is not a full-time student, a bill is due, but a discount may apply. GOV.UK says you get 25% off if you pay council tax and either live alone or everyone else in the home is disregarded; full-time students are disregarded.

So if a working sibling moves in with your child, the home loses the exemption and the sibling gets a bill with 25% off. Tower Hamlets puts it the same way: if all but one occupier is a student, a 25% discount is granted.

If the home is let as an HMO, the owner pays; Camden says the owner can claim a discount on behalf of any full-time students.

After graduation: the second homes premium

The student exemption ends on the day the course ends. If the home then stays furnished and is nobody’s main home, GOV.UK calls it a second home, and the council can charge up to twice the normal council tax.

Camden and Tower Hamlets have charged a 100% premium on second homes since 1 April 2025, so the bill is double. A home empty for at least a year can also attract extra council tax. If you plan to keep the home as a family base in London, budget for this.

If you let the home after graduation, the tenant living there normally pays. Our guide for a landlord living in Türkiye covers the tax and letting rules.

The journey to campus: check door to door

The flat that looks closest to campus is not always the shortest journey. Use TfL’s Journey Planner to check the door-to-door time from the address to the building your child will actually use, at the hours they will travel. To compare areas, see our London areas guide.

The lease: letting and use conditions

GOV.UK’s “How to lease” guide says many leases require you to ask permission to sublet on short lets, make alterations or keep pets. If you may let the home after graduation, ask your solicitor about these clauses before you buy.

Two briefs

What each one
is really asking for.

Write both down before you look at anything. Most of the difficult choices later are just this tension reappearing in a specific building.

Brief one

A home for your child

  • A short, reliable journey to campus, at the hours they will actually travel.
  • A building that feels safe to arrive at alone, late.
  • Ready to live in quickly, because the academic year does not wait.
  • A horizon of three or four years, sometimes less.
Brief two

An asset that outlasts the degree

  • Demand from tenants who are not students, so the property is not one market deep.
  • A resale audience wider than the next parent in the same position.
  • Charges and lease terms that still make sense once nobody in your family lives there.
  • A horizon measured in decades, not degrees.

The clearest conflict is proximity. The flat closest to campus is the closest fit for the first brief and often the narrowest answer to the second, because its appeal is concentrated in one kind of occupant.

A slightly longer journey frequently buys a much broader market. Whether that trade is worth making depends on which brief is genuinely the priority, and that is a question about your family rather than about property.

What to check

Six things that behave differently
when a student lives there.

None of these is a reason not to buy. Each is a place where a purchase near a university differs from an ordinary one, and where the difference is easier to handle before exchange than after.

Purpose-built student accommodation is a different asset, not a cheaper flatStudent blocks sold as investments are a separate class with their own resale market and their own financing profile. Some lenders decline them outright and some buyers will only pay cash, which narrows who you can sell to later.

This can still be the right purchase; it should just be a decision rather than a surprise.
Read the lease for occupancy and letting restrictionsSome leases restrict letting altogether, restrict short lets, or contain clauses about student occupancy. This matters most at exactly the moment your plans change, which is the moment nobody checks. What to check in a lease →
Term-time demand is seasonal in a way ordinary demand is notStudent demand follows the academic year, so an empty spell over the summer is a realistic assumption to build into any yield.

Since 1 May 2026, though, tenancies in England roll on with no end date: a student tenant is not obliged to leave when the year ends.

The possession ground for re-letting to students in a new academic year covers only full-time students sharing a house in multiple occupation, with notice given at the start, not a flat let to one student or purpose-built student accommodation. Model the voids →
Council tax treatment depends on who is living there, not on the propertyA household where everyone is a full-time student does not pay council tax; if anyone in it is not a full-time student, a bill is due, although a discount may apply.

So if your child moves out, or a non-student moves in, the position changes. Confirm the current position with the local council rather than assuming it follows the flat.
Furnishing and management are a real cost, not a footnoteA property occupied by a student far from their family usually needs to be furnished and actively managed. Budget for both, and decide before completion who answers the phone when something breaks in February. Lettings and management →
If you are borrowing, say what it is for at the startLending criteria differ for student-oriented property and for company purchases. Raising it with a broker at the outset costs nothing; discovering it after reservation costs the reservation window. Mortgage or cash →
The horizon

Decide now what happens
when they graduate.

Three years arrives quickly. Each of these is a reasonable plan; what causes trouble is not having chosen one, because the choice changes which property you should have bought.

Sell

The cleanest exit, and the one most affected by how narrow the buyer pool is. Anything that made the property specifically student-friendly can shrink that pool.

Let it out

Turns a family decision into an investment, which is a different job with different requirements. Worth testing against the asset brief now rather than in three years.

Keep it

A base in London for the family. Legitimate and often the real reason, but it should be stated openly, because it changes what a good purchase looks like. A second homes premium may apply. Owning it does not give anyone in the family the right to live in the UK. Does buying give you residency →

What this page will not do

We do not rank
universities or areas.

The obvious thing to put here would be a list of institutions with a suggested postcode beside each. We will not, and the reason is worth stating.

We have no basis for ranking universities, and a property advisory doing so would be presenting a marketing choice as academic guidance.
Naming areas as good for a specific institution implies a demand claim we cannot evidence. What we can do is help you weigh a specific building against both briefs.
Nothing here is tax advice. On council tax the borough the home is in has the final word; tax on rental income belongs with a qualified adviser.
Your child’s course length, campus and travel pattern are facts we do not have. They change the answer more than anything on this page.
Frequently asked questions

Short questions,
short answers.

Does my child pay council tax if they live there alone?

Not if they are a full-time student and nobody else lives there: where everyone is a full-time student, no council tax is due. You apply to the council with a student certificate from the place of study.

What changes if a non-student lives there?

The home loses the exemption and a bill is due. If the non-student is the only adult who is not a student, a 25% discount applies.

What changes after graduation?

The student exemption ends on the day the course ends. If the home is let, the tenant normally pays; if it is furnished and nobody’s main home, the council can charge a second homes premium.

How do I find the home’s council tax band?

Enter the address or postcode in the GOV.UK council tax band checker. In England, the band reflects the home’s value on 1 April 1991; the yearly amount is set by the council.

Does owning the home give my child or me a right to live in the UK?

No. Owning property is not on GOV.UK’s right to reside list. We explain more in does buying a home give you residency.

Sources

What this guide
is based on.

Last checked: 15 October 2026 (council tax, travel, the lease and tenancy rules); the rest of the page was last reviewed on 14 October 2026. This page is general information, not tax advice.

Take it further
Yield or growth → London areas, compared → Ten questions before you reserve → What a purchase really costs → Letting from Türkiye and NRLS →
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Tell us the campus
and the horizon.

With those two facts the shortlist narrows quickly, and the trade-off between the two briefs becomes something you choose rather than inherit.

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