Private landlords with properties in university towns may discover their portfolios are of greater value, according to figures from Lloyds TSB.
The statistics show the majority of cities that are home to educational establishments have seen increased house prices.
According to the Lloyds TSB University Town House Price Review, Aberdeen, home to 29,300 students, saw an average house price increase of almost 40 percent since 2005.
This compared to house price growth of 14 percent in Scotland as a whole in the same period and resulted from a 54 percent rise in the city’s student population.
The towns that saw the largest increases in their student populations were those that recorded the highest house price increases.
Overall, more than 60 percent of university towns saw their house price growth outperforming their region in the last five years.
The Coleraine campus of the University of Ulster campus caused a 30 percent growth in the city’s student population and saw a similarly high price rise of 34 percent, compared to the Northern Ireland average of 24 percent.
Prices in Winchester increased by 30 percent, well ahead of the 2.5 percent rise across the South East, as the town’s student numbers rose by 78 percent.
The average Winchester house price of £385,713 was 114 percent higher than the £180,501 UK average.
However, for some of the UK’s most popular university towns there were more mixed results.
Edinburgh, London and Glasgow recorded only modest house price rises despite huge expansions of their student populations.
In Birmingham, house prices were actually three percent lower than in 2005 and just over 11 percent shy of the West Midlands average, despite a rise of two thirds in student numbers in the city.
Leeds, Manchester and Nottingham all recorded rises of more than a third in their student populations but the West Yorkshire city was the only one with an average house price exceeding of its region.
Lloyds TSB housing economist, Nitesh Patel, said: “Growing student numbers have had a big impact in boosting house prices in some university towns, where the increase in demand has led to the local market outperforming the rest of the region. “However, it’s a very mixed picture for some of UK’s largest university towns that have seen student population increase significantly without impacting on house prices.
“In the past five years population across the university towns in UK has increased by nearly a million students. Naturally, this has boosted demand for property and land to provide suitable accommodation for students.”
