For many University of Malawi students, the start of a new semester no longer signals a return to lectures, but a renewed confrontation with an increasingly unaffordable housing market. In Chikanda—once a modest residential neighbourhood and now a dense student enclave—rentals have surged at a pace that far exceeds inflation and students’ financial capacity, exposing deep structural weaknesses in Malawi’s student accommodation market. “I moved into my room at K45 000 during my third year.
Today I’m paying K75 000. The increment happens every semester,” says fourth-year student Leston Simumbo. “It compromises my budget for food and other essentials.” Another student, who opted for anonymity, saw monthly rent rise from K75 000 to K120 000 within a year—a 60 percent jump that students say is unheard of in nearby suburbs such as Matawale.
In percentage terms, rentals in Chikanda have risen by 60 to 67 percent, more than double the 27.9 percent year-on-year inflation recorded by the National Statistical Office (NSO) in November 2025, underlining how student housing costs are outpacing broader price pressures in the economy. Fourth-year student Memory Chikwakwa says rising rents have pushed many students into accommodation ill-suited for higher learning. “The room is extremely small.
[paywall]
I put my things under the bed just to create walking space. After paying rent, I have little left for food,” says Chikwakwa, who lives in a converted residential house now operating as a makeshift hostel. The Students Representative Council (SRC) traces the pressure to a long-standing accommodation deficit that has widened alongside student enrolment.
University of Malawi director of students welfare Christopher Mkolongo says the institution currently enrols more than 10 000 students but offers only 1 200 on-campus bed spaces, pushing the majority into private hostels concentrated in Chikanda. “The root cause is the shortage of hostels on campus,” Mkolongo says. “This allows landlords to charge prices they want because students have no option.” Unima director of student affairs Jonas Mwatsetedza says off-campus rentals are structurally more expensive than campus accommodation due to the absence of economies of scale.
“Most off-campus hostels are residential houses converted into student accommodation,” he explains. “If a landlord has to hire two guards to secure the premises and employ a caretaker, those costs are transferred to just six or eight students in that house. This makes it more expensive than the subsidised fees students pay on campus.” Currently, students accommodated on campus pay K35 000 per month—less than half of what their off-campus counterparts pay in Chikanda, where monthly rents range between K75 000 and K120 000.
[/paywall]
