Student accommodation providers

Property insurance and wellbeing services for universities, private halls, and letting agents, from the student specialists

Specialist solutions for student accommodation providers

We’re committed to providing student accommodation providers with affordable and sustainable premiums. So if you’re looking for group contents insurance for students, commercial property cover, or student wellbeing services, we’re perfectly placed to help.

Why choose us?

We protect more than 350 accommodation providers, insuring the possessions of over half a million students. This spans our partnerships with universities, private halls, letting agents, and household utility bill splitting service providers. 

And your insurance is just the start. As well as a named client executive, you'll be offered marketing support to explain to students what they are covered for. And to save you time, our Howden for Students app lets students access their contents policy easily – alongside a confidential 24/7 wellbeing helpline for their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing.

Group contents insurance

Our group contents insurance automatically covers your students’ belongings while they’re living in your accommodation if the unexpected – such as a fire or flood, or theft – happens.

This offers reassurance that they are protected without needing to sort out insurance themselves. It can also help you fulfil your duty of care.

What does group contents insurance cover?

Group contents insurance for accommodation providers covers your students’ belongings while kept in your property, or at university or college. Our policies are fully designed for students, and we include low excesses as standard.

This cover is included:

  • Key valuables: laptops, tablets and other important gadgets are protected as standard. Our enhanced cover means portable computer equipment is also covered at college or university.
  • Tenants' liability protection: we provide £5,000 of cover, per student, for accidental damage to their accommodation. Fittings and fixtures are protected as standard.
  • Major incident support: get end-to-end support for you and your students if a major incident, such as a flood, impacts a large number of students.
  • Emotional support pets: the move away from home can be stressful for many students, and some need the comfort of an emotional support pet. This covers damage to your fixtures and fittings these may cause. 

Optional add-ons

Because our cover is flexible, we can add protection for other risks you’d like to cover in your package:

  • Emergency accommodation: this can relieve the pressure of finding temporary housing. It covers additional costs of placing students in temporary accommodation, such as a hotel, following theft, a fire, or a flood.
  • Bicycle theft: this is protection for bike theft from designated cycle storage at the term-time address. It can also cover bikes locked to an immovable object at college or university, while unattended.
  • Accidental loss of contents: this is cover for unintentional misplacement of items from the term-time address or the accommodation provider's secure parcel storage.
Living room with central table on a rug
Block of flats

Our cover in action

A major fire at a student accommodation block led to the evacuation of 200 students, with many rooms completely destroyed.

Our specialist education team immediately put our incident response plan into action. This gave urgent support to the university, the accommodation provider, and the students. 

At CRM students we encourage our residents to use sustainable means of transport to and from university - one of which is by bicycle. Offering additional bike insurance to an already comprehensive cover gives added peace of mind to our residents across the UK.
Matt Floyd, Head of Mobilisation, CRM Students

Howden for Students app

We’ve made it easy for students to access their group contents insurance – and get the information they need. Our dedicated Howden for Students app lets students:

  • Get instant access to their group contents insurance cover
  • Make a claim for damage or loss 
  • Use a 24/7 helpline to support their mental, physical, legal, financial and emotional wellbeing.
  • Discover tips on living life at university, budgeting, health and exercise, food and drink, mental health, wellbeing, and lots more.

Our dedicated possessions claims team will deal directly with tenants, minimising your involvement and saving you time.

Student sat cross-legged on desk with laptop on knee

Student wellbeing and mental health support

We believe all students should be able to access mental health support as they experience the challenges and changes that come with studying. 

Our student assistance programme, developed with Health Assured, offers them mental health and wellbeing support via 24/7 access to qualified counsellors, 365 days a year.

Key features include:

  • Unlimited access to 24/7 mental health and counselling helpline
  • Interpretation service in over 240 languages and dialects
  • Legal, financial, and medical information helpline
  • Counsellor-led guidance for staff supporting students
  • 24/7 critical and traumatic incident phone support

You can also add structured counselling via phone, video call, or in person, to your package. We’ll include regular review meetings and insights into use, to analyse trends and impact. 

For more information, contact our team.

Nothing is too much trouble, and our account manager always strives to provide us with the best product at the best price and is extremely responsive and helpful whenever we need her.
The Unite Group, Emma Hamilton, Brand Partnership Manager

Commercial property insurance

We can cover your student accommodation, from block halls to private rentals, if the unexpected – such as storm or fire damage – happens. 

Our sector expertise and our property market experience means we can help you stay protected against the challenges that can come with letting properties to students. 

When you have commercial property insurance with us, as well as flexible cover at competitive prices, you'll have a dedicated client executive. You'll be able to contact them directly, or arrange a visit.

They can also support you with a claim submission, and can deliver on-site onboarding sessions for colleagues, and attend housing fairs and wellbeing events.

Our buildings insurance can include:

  • All-risks buildings insurance: this covers the replacement value of your building, to include debris removal and professional fees.
  • Flexible unoccupancy periods and terms: we'll liaise directly with insurers, getting the best terms for your circumstances.
  • Property owners’ liability: provides protection for costs or damages due to an accident or other insured event for you or a third party and their property.
  • Loss of rent and alternative accommodation: if you suffer a loss such as fire or flood that makes your property uninhabitable, we can provide loss of rental income and alternative accommodation for the tenant.
  • Terrorism cover: this is optional cover for property damage caused by acts of terrorism.
Modern building with blue sky above
We recently had to temporarily relocate three tenants due to a leak in one of our properties. Because of your assistance we were able to put them up in a city centre hotel within a couple of hours where they stayed for three days whilst their house was repaired. This was a massive help to our tenants but also to help maintain our relationship with them which is invaluable!
Ben Jacobs, Lettings Manager, Stonehouse Properties

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The insurance you need, combined into one straightforward policy

Student accommodation providers

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How optimistic do students feel?

Take a look at our annual Student Happiness Index for insights into students’ challenges, concerns, motivations, and aspirations for the future. (2023 Endsleigh report.)

Insurance for student accommodation providers FAQs

Yes – but not everywhere. Under accommodation providers’ contents insurance, students’ belongings are also covered while they’re on college or university premises. This includes laptops, tablets, and other portable computer equipment.

To cover them for other places when they’re out and about, the student would need to take out their own personal possessions cover (which we can arrange).

Yes, bicycles are covered too. Our bicycle theft additional cover gives extra security against bike theft. It provides students peace of mind against bike theft from designated cycle storage at the term time address or at college or university, when left unattended.

If a student’s parcel is lost before being collected, you’d need additional accidental loss of contents to cover it. This provides protection for losing items from the term time address or secure parcel storage designated by the student accommodation provider.

Just one phone call to your client executive starts our crisis management response. This provides total support for both you and your students, keeping disruption to your students’ lives to an absolute minimum. It also helps you fulfil your duty of care.

In a crisis situation such as a fire or flood, you may need to find immediate temporary housing for your students. These additional emergency accommodation costs can be covered under your buildings insurance.