RRA: The New Letting Calendar: Why We Think Tenancies Will Start in June

Most of the commentary on the Renters' Rights Act has focused, understandably, on what landlords stand to lose. The abolition of Section 21, the end of fixed terms, the conditions attached to Ground 4A, the six-month signing restriction covered in the previous post in this series: all of these are framed, almost universally, as problems to be managed rather than changes to be understood on their own terms.

We want to take a different angle in this post. Not because the challenges are not real, they are, and we have not shied away from them across this series. But because we think there is a structural shift coming to the student letting calendar that most landlords have not yet considered, and that, looked at clearly, contains a genuine upside alongside the disruption.

Our view, based on a careful reading of what Ground 4A actually requires and how the new regime will work in practice, is that student tenancy start dates will move earlier. We think June will become the dominant start month for student HMO tenancies, replacing the July, August, and September starts that have characterised the market for a generation. And we think that shift, while it brings a new void period into the summer calendar, will in many cases reduce the annual cost of owning and managing a student property.

This is a prediction, and we want to be clear about that. The market will take more than one letting cycle to settle. But the logic behind it is grounded directly in the legislation, and we think it is worth working through in detail.

The Rule

To understand why the calendar shifts, you need to start with what Ground 4A actually requires in terms of timing.

Ground 4A requires four months' notice, and that notice must specify a possession date falling between 1 June and 30 September. The tenancy must have been signed no more than six months before the tenant was entitled to possession.

Working that backwards tells you a great deal about where tenancy start dates need to sit for the model to function cleanly.

If a tenancy starts on 1 June, the landlord can sign it no earlier than 1 December of the previous year, which sits comfortably within the traditional autumn letting window. A Ground 4A notice served at the point of signing, or shortly after the tenancy begins, requires four months' notice. Four months from a 1 June start gives a possession date of 1 June the following year, which lands squarely within the permitted June-to-September window. The cycle is clean. The tenancy runs from June to June. The landlord has possession by the start of summer, ready to re-let to the next cohort.

Compare that to the traditional September start date, which has been the default in most university cities. A tenancy starting on 1 September cannot be signed before 1 March if the landlord wants to preserve Ground 4A. The six-month window for signing opens in March, which is already deep into the academic year. Any Ground 4A notice served at the time of signing would require possession no earlier than 1 July the following year. The tenancy therefore runs from September through to July or later, which is a longer tenancy, a later possession date, and a tighter turnaround before the next group needs to be in for their September start.

The June start date is simply the most efficient configuration. It minimises the gap between the end of one tenancy and the start of the next. And it fits within the Ground 4A framework without the timing pressure that later start dates create.

The New Norm

We expect the market to figure this out over the next one to two letting cycles, and once it does, we expect June to become the standard.

Before getting into the landlord's perspective, it is worth thinking about why the June start date will also make sense for students, because a model that works for both sides of the market is one that will actually take hold.

Most undergraduate students sit their final exams in May. By the end of May or the first week of June, a significant proportion of the student population in cities like Lincoln, Nottingham, and Hull has finished their academic commitments for the year. They are not moving out immediately in every case, particularly those who have results to wait for or who are simply not yet organised enough to pack up a whole house. But their active use of the property is winding down. From the student's perspective, the end of exams is the natural point at which their relationship with the property shifts.

Under the new model, landlords can serve a Ground 4A notice requiring possession by a date in June. For many students, that aligns almost perfectly with where they are in their year anyway. They have finished their studies, they are heading home or moving on, and the notice simply formalises a departure they were already planning. The two-month notice period under Ground 4A means that for a June possession date, the notice is served in February, which is something we will come to in the handling section below.

What this means in practice is a new concept of what a student tenancy looks like across the calendar year. Students sign for a June start. They may not move the bulk of their possessions in until September when the new academic year begins. During the summer months, June through to September, the property is effectively used for storage. Boxes, furniture, bikes, and anything the student does not need at home over the summer stay in the house. The property is not unoccupied in a formal sense, but it is lightly used at best. The student has a home to return to in September without the stress of sourcing last-minute accommodation, and the landlord has a tenancy in place from June without the financial and operational pressure of a hard changeover.

This model will feel unfamiliar to landlords who have spent years working to minimise void periods and maximise the proportion of the year on which rent is being collected from a fully occupied house. But the framing of the summer storage period as a void is, we think, slightly misleading. The tenancy is live. Rent is being paid. The student has legal occupation of the property. What is absent is intensive daily use, and that absence is precisely what reduces the cost to the landlord in terms of utilities, wear, and maintenance.

This will not happen uniformly or overnight. There will be landlords who stick with September starts, particularly in cities where the academic calendar creates strong cultural pressure for students to move in before term. There will be markets where the oversupply of PBSA accommodation means landlords are competing for a smaller pool of students and cannot afford to be prescriptive about start dates. And there will be an inevitable period of inconsistency while the sector adjusts, during which some landlords are on June starts and others are on September starts and both are trying to recruit from the same pool of tenants.

But the logic of the legislation points firmly toward June, and agents and landlords who understand that logic will have a structural advantage over those who do not.

There is another dimension to this shift that we think is genuinely under appreciated, and it concerns costs during the lighter summer months.

A June-to-June tenancy cycle, in a property where students vacate by the end of June, leaves approximately three months before the next academic year begins in late September or early October. During that period, the property is empty. Under the old fixed-term model, landlords often tried to minimise this void by pushing start dates as late as possible into summer and end dates as close to the start of the next intake as they could manage. A one-week gap was common. A property was cleaned, any repairs were done quickly, and the next group moved in.

Under the new model, the tenancy runs from June and students move the bulk of their belongings in fully come September. The summer months sit in between. Rent is still being collected throughout, because the tenancy is live and the students have occupation of the property. What changes is the intensity of use.

It is worth looking at what that lighter summer period means in cost terms.

An occupied student house consumes energy continuously. Heating, hot water, cooking, washing, charging devices, running appliances: the energy footprint of four or five students living full-time in a property is substantial. In a utilities-inclusive tenancy, every unit of gas and electricity consumed during the tenancy is a cost to the landlord. In a non-inclusive tenancy, the bills fall to the students, but the wear and tear on appliances, fixtures, and fittings accumulates at a rate that reflects full occupancy.

During the summer 'storage period', that consumption drops sharply. A property being used to store belongings rather than being lived in daily runs on minimal energy. There is no continuous hot water demand, no cooking, no daily showers, no appliances running through the night. Maintenance callouts drop significantly. The physical wear that accumulates across an academic year simply stops accruing at its usual rate.

For landlords on utilities-inclusive management arrangements, the saving during the summer storage period can be meaningful. The gas and electricity costs for a four-bedroom student house through the winter months, when heating runs constantly and students are largely in residence, can run to several hundred pounds per month. Three months of near-zero consumption across those same line items represents a real reduction in the annual cost of running the property.

There is also a less tangible but no less real benefit: the summer period gives landlords proper time. Time to do the maintenance and redecoration that has been deferred during the tenancy. Time to assess the condition of appliances, replace anything that is reaching end of life, and address any damp, drainage, or structural issues before they become emergency callouts during term time. The compressed turnaround of the old model, where landlords had a matter of weeks between one group leaving and the next arriving, made it difficult to do anything other than basic cleaning and minor repairs. The longer, lighter summer period creates the conditions for proper investment in the property, which pays back over multiple letting cycles in reduced maintenance costs and better tenant retention.

How We're Handling It

At Student Housing, we have made June our target start date for new HMO tenancies across Lincoln, Nottingham, and Hull where the property and the landlord's preferences allow for it.

This means our letting calendar for 2026/27 onwards is oriented around a June signing window. For a 1 June start, the six-month signing window opens from 1 December, which aligns well with the early part of the traditional autumn marketing season. We list in October, conduct viewings through November and December, and issue letters of intent to secure groups before Christmas, as we explained in Post 3. The tenancy is then signed from December onward, the Ground 4A written statement is included, and the cycle runs cleanly.

On the notice side, a June possession date under Ground 4A requires four months' notice, which means the Section 8 notice is served in February. That is something our managed landlords do not need to think about or remember to action themselves. We track it, prepare the notice, and serve it at the right time as a standard part of the management service.

From the student's perspective, the model works like this. They sign in winter for a June start. They do not need to move everything in on day one. Through the summer months, from June to September, the property holds their belongings while they are home, travelling, or working. The property is not empty in a formal sense and rent continues to run, but the physical presence is light. When September arrives and the new academic year begins, they move in fully. The transition from storage to full occupation is seamless because the tenancy has already been established and they have had access to the property throughout the summer.

We are also being clear with landlords about the financial picture. A June-start tenancy with a summer storage period is a different income profile from a September start with a minimal gap between tenancies. The rent rolls continuously because the tenancy is live throughout. What changes is the cost side: utilities consumption during the summer storage period is low, maintenance demands drop, and the wear on the property during those months is a fraction of what it is during term time. For landlords on utilities-inclusive arrangements, the annual net position under a June-start cycle is often closer to the old model than a simple comparison of start dates would suggest.

What we are confident about is this: the June start date is where the market is heading, and understanding it early puts landlords and their agents in a much stronger position than waiting for the rest of the sector to catch up. If you would like to work through what a June-based letting cycle looks like for your specific properties, speak to your local Student Housing branch in Lincoln, Nottingham, or Hull. We are already modelling this for our managed portfolio and are happy to share our thinking in detail.

Student Housing | Renters' Rights Act Series — Post 5 of 8

Next in the series: Post 6 — Why Students Can Leave When They Like, and How to Make Sure They Don't

Student Housing manages student properties across Lincoln, Nottingham, and Hull. This post is part of our ongoing series on the Renters' Rights Act 2025 and is written for general informational purposes. It does not constitute legal advice. Landlords with specific questions about their circumstances should seek independent legal guidance.