Housing Hand operates as the UK’s largest professional guarantor service, supporting students and working professionals in securing and maintaining rental accommodation.
GSL News sat down recently with Housing Hand’s Managing Director, Graham Hayward, to talk about the findings from Housing Hand’s recent survey of 1,700 respondents about student financial literacy and how the upcoming renters’ rights reforms are reshaping the UK property market.
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Housing Hand, the UK’s largest guarantor service, has been quietly revolutionising student accommodation for over a decade. What started as a simple solution to help international students secure housing has evolved into a comprehensive support ecosystem that now serves 90% students and 10% working professionals, processing guarantees worth millions and mediating disputes that might otherwise leave young people in a precarious housing position.
“We started 12 years ago – our founder, Jeremy Robinson, was just coming out of his student days, and a number of his friends were trying to get student property, but they couldn’t pay upfront. So, he said, ‘Well, then I’ll send you a personal guarantor’. And then he realised that was actually quite onerous in terms of liability. So, he founded the company, and ever since that time, we’ve been building on that.”
With 12 years of operations behind them, Housing Hand has built what may be the most comprehensive dataset on UK rental defaults. They’ve settled approximately £4.5 million in claims over the past four years, with about one-third resolved through mediation before any payout was required.
However, as experienced as they are in working with students, Housing Hand’s latest research revealed some sobering facts about their core customer group that even surprised the Housing Hand team.
A reality check
In January 2025, Housing Hand surveyed 1,700 students and working professionals about their experiences with renting. The results were startling, revealing what Managing Director Graham describes as “a certain naivety” in how young people approach one of their most significant financial commitments.
“How do I rent a house? What does that mean? Many people didn’t even understand what a guarantor was,” Graham explains. “So, I’m asking you for one of these (a guarantor), but I don’t know what that is. So, they had to go and research it. There was a huge lack of preparation coming to that event.”
The survey also found that students were signing tenancy agreements without truly understanding the financial implications, and 33% said that they did not know what would happen at the end of a tenancy agreement. “They didn’t really understand what they were signing as an AST or leasing agreement,” Graham notes. “They just went ahead with it, and they didn’t understand the financial implications of that in terms of not just the commitment, of what happens ongoing and how long they were committed for, but also what happens at the end or during the lease if something goes wrong.”
Graham notes that this lack of preparation was particularly pronounced among international students, though UK students weren’t immune. In addition, 25% of students reported feeling overwhelmed when finding a property, 22% felt uncertain, 21% felt anxious, and a further 13% felt scared or out of their depth.
Beyond guarantees: wellbeing support
Housing Hand’s response to these findings demonstrates how the company has evolved far beyond its original guarantor model. Recognising that housing stress was part of a broader wellbeing crisis, they launched a comprehensive health and wellbeing package in partnership with HealthHero in association with A J Gallagher.
“Every guarantee now includes a health and wellbeing service where you can call out 24 hours a day to a doctor,” Graham explains. “It’s not an NHS scheme, it’s a private scheme. So, if you’re worried about your wellbeing in any way – you’re worried about exams, you’re worried about relationships, you’re missing home – you can call a counsellor, you can call a doctor.”
The service has proven so popular that even Housing Hand’s own staff use it. “Trying to get an appointment with an NHS doctor at a time which fits you is really challenging,” Graham observes, highlighting a broader healthcare accessibility issue affecting young people.
The feedback from parents has also been positive. “Mum and dad are like, ‘Okay, you’re taking care of my prized asset,'” Graham says, acknowledging the parental anxiety that comes with sending children away to university.
The Renters’ Rights Bill
The incoming renters’ rights legislation represents the most significant shake-up of the UK rental market in decades, and yet, a key finding from the Housing Hand survey was that 75% of renters don’t understand how the upcoming Renter’s Rights Bill might affect them. Graham notes that the lack of understanding around the reforms is not confined to students – its implications are still being fully understood across the sector.
The renters’ rights reforms are comprehensive and will have a significant impact on the sector. Section 21 evictions will disappear and are likely to be replaced by unlimited tenancies where tenants are likely to be able to give two months’ notice – “for a landlord that means the certainty of income for 12 months is now lower”, explains Graham. There is also likely to be changes to payment terms.
“Many PBSA operators don’t take a deposit,” Graham explains. “Some have various guises of doing that, but most of them say, ‘Well, we want you to pay in advance.’ And sometimes that’s a term in advance, but some are even annually in advance. That’s no longer available. So, student landlords will only be able to take one month’s rent in advance.”
This represents a fundamental shift in how student accommodation providers manage cash flow and risk. Combined with the removal of section 21 powers and new notice provisions, Graham observes that landlords are scrambling to understand their exposure.
Understanding risk exposure
The convergence of these regulatory changes with existing market pressures has created, according to Graham, a “frenetic” environment surrounding guarantor services. “Everyone’s sort of running a bit for cover and saying, ‘How can I make sure that I’m going to get the income that I’m planning on?'” he observes.
For PBSA providers, the challenges are particularly acute. During a transitional period, likely to last 12 months, PBSAs might operate under similar constraints to houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), creating a level playing field that many aren’t prepared for.
Graham suggests that for PBSA operators, it will be critical to look at risk mitigation and consider how a service like Housing Hand can help mitigate risk:
“Look at your risk mitigation and how you’re going to do that. I have reverse-engineered all the PBSA numbers and sat down with a few of the CFOs of public companies and said ‘Look, here’s your cost of risk. Most PBSA operators will say they write off 1% or 2% a year for non-performing tenancies. But the debt doesn’t start at that level. Typically, it will start at 10-12% in terms of a gross default rate, but the cost of getting you from the gross rate down to the 2% write off costs more than a guarantee does, right? We all have these legacies of how we do things, but they’re not very efficient. When we enter arrangements with PBSA operators, we say ‘Yes, we can cover all of that. We then collect the defaults, so you don’t have to worry about not getting paid. You actually don’t have to write off your 2%, which’s an upside for you.’”
Innovation in risk management
Housing Hand’s response to these challenges showcases the innovation happening in the guarantor space. They’ve introduced “A-void cover” – if a tenant gives two months’ notice, Housing Hand will cover up to three months at 50% of the rent, provided they have issued Ground 4A, giving landlords a softer landing while they find replacement tenants.
They’ve also developed “Depositless” arrangements that go beyond traditional alternative deposit schemes. Graham explains:
“With alternative deposit schemes, rather than having a cash deposit, you buy an insurance that doesn’t pay out until the end of a tenancy. We didn’t like that because if you’re a landlord, and someone spills some red wine on your carpet, you can’t claim that until the end of the tenancy. So, we decided to do something different – a guarantee usually sits above the level of the deposit. Any claim as a landlord, you use the deposit first to remedy whatever it is, and then we pay out above that – for a small additional fee, we cover it down to zero.”
For working professionals facing joint liability in shared housing, Housing Hand also offers “Only My Share” protection, ensuring tenants are only liable for their portion of the rent regardless of what their flatmates do.
Looking to the future
As the industry grapples with the upcoming Renters’ Rights Bill, Housing Hand has been evolving its services beyond guarantor services. They’re becoming a comprehensive onboarding solution, offering identity verification, right-to-rent checks, and financial services that landlords increasingly need as compliance requirements become more stringent.
The company has also expanded its educational mission, working with embassies and universities to better prepare international students for the UK rental market. “We can’t do that early enough,” Graham emphasises, reflecting on the importance of student preparedness.
Looking ahead, Graham sees the guarantor model expanding far beyond its traditional boundaries. “We’re seeing that guarantors are really right in the middle of a number of things,” he explains. “The guarantor itself can change from being purchased by a tenant to being purchased by a landlord. It can cover a block, or it can cover a portfolio nationally.”
This evolution reflects broader market pressures. Graham predicts that universities, facing increasing commercial constraints, may soon seek to cover default risk in their halls of residence. “Universities are sadly under a lot of pressure commercially,” Graham observes. “So, I can see that halls will start to become more commercially aware and want to cover some of their default risk.”
Housing Hand’s approach to this expanding market is grounded in a focus on robustness and resilience. The company backs itself with extensive insurance coverage and maintains costly liability protection policies to ensure continuity even during systemic crises like COVID-19:
“We take leadership as the largest guarantor in the UK by a mile very seriously from a governance point of view and from a leadership point of view of being responsible to the market … our focus is on making sure that we’re robust and resilient and we can continue no matter what. Because when you’re a guarantor, it’s a position of trust, and that trust is so, so important for us.”
The company’s philosophy remains centred on problem-solving. “We’re looking at what the problem is, how to solve it,” Graham explains. “That’s really what our DNA is all about – helping people get the tenancy that they want and then keep it as they go on their journey.”
