Relationships between landlords and tenants can vary considerably: the 999network went to Exeter to find out about the student lettings market.

Exeter University has around 14,000 students if you include the relatively small campus in Cornwall. While the university itself does cater for some 4,000 students to live on its' Streatham Campus and at St. Lukes in halls of residence, there are still thousands of students who rent privately with landlords and through agencies.

There are several agencies operating a student lettings service in Exeter, but what potential student residents might not realise is that they will generally pay more if letting through an agency. Each tenant has to pay an administration fee directly to the agent, which can be avoided if you cut out the middle man and go directly to a private landlord.

That said, many landlords prefer to deal with lettings agencies because they do not have to deal with hassle of finding new tenants each year. Similarly, students tend to use lettings agencies because they often have several properties available on their books, and thus it is easier to find a range of accommodation.

An independent survey asked how happy students were with their landlords performance, with the following results:

• Very happy: 23%
• Relatively happy: 54%
• Unhappy: 17%
• Unsure: 6%

The majority of students said that if they had a problem with their property, they would notify their landlord who would usually solve the problem as soon as possible.

Almost a fifth said that they were unhappy with their landlord, mainly due to slow responses when it came to property maintenance upkeep, and unexpected charges for damages.

In one instance, tenants notified their landlord of a damp problem in one of the downstairs walls. The student told us: "After a couple of months and still no resolve to the problem, we called in the Environmental Health. They sent someone round who tested the wall and said that it had the worst possible level of damp."

"We didn't pursue the matter though because by that stage, it was nearly the end of the contract and we were moving out. I imagine the problem has been sorted by now."

Almost all student properties in Exeter are rented on a 10 or 11 month contract, with prices varying according to distance from the city centre and campus, and of course the overall state of the property.

Our investigations found some students who were paying as little as £52 a week: an absolute bargain compared to the most expensive rooms on campus, which are almost £150 a week. However, that particular property was off Monks Road, which about a 25 minute walk to campus, and roughly the same to the centre of the city.

The most expensive private accommodation per person we found was £96 a week, for four students sharing a very modern house which had all the latest modern amenities, and was close to campus.

Overall, the average price paid by students per week was between £73-76, and the majority of students tended to live in four or five person properties. However, Gillams Properties did have a 13-bedroom property available to let, which would house more than the amount of people you would usually find in a corridor at a halls of residence!

Student lettings can be big business. With the new Princesshay shopping centre and the university continuing to perform strongly at an academic and sporting level, it looks as though demand in the student lettings market in Exeter will continue to be thrive.

However, while the general property market in the UK remains uncertain, landlords may have to decide whether it is worth investing in the buy-to-let market for students.