South Africa: High Student Accommodation Costs Making Higher Education Unaffordable

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The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Mr Tebogo Letsie, has warned that the high cost of student accommodation is making education extremely expensive and could exclude poor students from accessing higher education in South Africa.

Speaking during an oversight visit to the University of Mpumalanga yesterday, the Chairperson raised a concern that student accommodation has been turned into a huge profit-making scheme by private accommodation providers across the country.

“Education is a social good, but we have people who decide they are going to make huge profits. The exorbitant cost of student accommodation is making education unaffordable, this is tactical exclusion for the poor,” he said.

Some accommodation providers charge students more than the National Student Financial Aid capped rates forcing students to pay the difference, or leaving them with huge debts to the university, in cases when the institutions cover that amount on their behalf.

To try find solutions to the challenges, the committee has organised a colloquium on student accommodation to be held on 28 August 2026, and invited the Competition Commission, the Estate Agency Affairs Board, NSFAS and other relevant stakeholders to attend.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.

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