University Students Sharing Flats: When Studentification Becomes Vertical

This paper presents a study about studentification in a small, compact Spanish city. Unlike most of the previously analysed cases, students of this city share flats instead of living in houses in multiple occupancy. The studentification, which is hardly perceptible in the streets or the neighbourhood, becomes a reality in the staircase community, giving rise to the term ‘vertical studentification’. A survey was conducted amongst university students to locate and quantify the floating population of students. Also, long-term residents and landlords were interviewed to assess the impact of students on the communities of apartment blocks. The study reveals that studentification does happen in a high-rise morphology but in a vertical and hidden way, making policy implications less straightforward.