Exclusive tour inside York's new five-star luxury student accommodation

WHAT would the nuns think? St Joseph's Convent, home to the Order of Poor Clares, has been resurrected as the swankiest student digs in town.

With rents ranging from £130 to £376 per week, life at Vita Student York in Lawrence Street is more akin to staying in a five-star boutique hotel than typical student accommodation.

There are no damp patches, squabbles over stolen milk or queues for the shower here.

Instead, inhabitants have their own en suites, access to a home cinema and private dining room as well as a free gym with personal training sessions thrown in. A grab-and-go breakfast is available every morning in this all-inclusive package – as is a weekly cleaner.

It's a sprawling campus of 13 buildings, with 501 rooms, and 644 students. It opened in September and 499 rooms are occupied.

Vita is the newest addition to York's burgeoning student accommodation scene – and the most luxurious.

LUXURY: Student bedrooms are designed like a boutique hotel

Rex Chen, 21, is studying maths and economics at the University of York. He is from Shenzhen in China and is in his second year of study. Last year, he lived at Foss Studios, the student accommodation block a few metres down the road. But after a look around Vita, he decided to move, along with most of the fellow students on his corridor at Foss Studios, he said, because of the better "facilities and common areas".

He did consider renting accommodation in York, but found it too old fashioned. "I found a lot of the houses in York not so modern," said Rex, who came to Yorkshire six years ago to study for GCSEs and A Levels at boarding school. "I did look at some houses in town, but they were not for students."

Rex has the best digs in Vita – a twin studio, comprising of four rooms, including a kitchen and ensuite, which he shares with his girlfriend. They split the weekly rent of £376.

Student nurse Jess Ward, 22, has a studio room which is a compact space complete with kitchenette and ensuite with shower. There is a desk with a pull-out dining table and built-in wardrobes and drawers while the mattress lifts to reveal more storage space. Like all rooms, there is a TV mounted on the wall, and a double bed. She pays £175 a week.

The bedrooms are of a quality and design you would expect to find in a boutique hotel – and far removed from what the nuns would have had in their day. Their bedrooms were small box rooms, not dissimilar in size to a prison cell. These have now been turned into study rooms for the students to use via a booking service. The same method is used to secure access to some of the other shared facilities, including a plush, 20-person cinema, a movie room and private dining rooms, where students can cook and entertain friends and family.

FUN AND GAMES: VIta has a games room, cinema room as well as a gym, all of which are included in the weekly rent

While the accommodation is spread over new purpose-built blocks, the shared facilities are centred on the former convent building. Walk through its doors and there's a nostalgic fug, reminiscent of a Victorian school and probably coming from the old wooden staircase which has been retained. The design team has tried to preserve many of the original features, while giving the building an injection of 21st century style.

The social hub revolves around the former chapel – it's a striking space, more akin to a stylish hotel lobby or designer wine bar. But look closely and you will spot traces of its past life: wooden pews hang on the perimeter wall and Singer sewing machines, once used by the nuns, are on display too. In a side room, now a games room complete with snooker, air hockey and ping-pong tables, hang black and white photos of the nuns and their old wooden tennis racquets.

The former sewing room is now the breakfast room, where students can eat a choice of cereals, fruit, yoghurt and pastries as well as fruit juices and hot drinks – or more likely quickly grab some take out to eat en route to lectures.

As a homage to its former use, designers have created a bespoke wallpaper of reels of different coloured threads.

A state-of-the art gym with floor-to-ceiling windows has been installed in the ground floor of one of the student accommodation blocks. There is a large screen offering virtual fitness classes, while a personal trainer is on hand every Monday from 4pm to 7pm to put students through their paces.

There is a covered bike shed too, with cycles available for hire – again free of charge. It is all set in acres of landscaped gardens as well as an orchard, growing pears, apples and figs.

Student nurse Jess is in her third and final year at the University of York and says Vita is worth the money.

In her first year, she stayed in campus accommodation at the cost of £135 a week. "For that, I had an ensuite, but had a single bed, a shared kitchen and one shelf in the fridge and half of one in the freezer."

Last year, she shared a student house with seven other girls for £105 a week, including bills. "Even then, they were funny if you put the heating on."

OUTDOORS: There is lots of outdoor space including an orchard

Her granddad helps her meet the rent to stay at Vita. "I'd rather pay the extra to live here," she says. "It includes gym membership which would be £35 a month and breakfast every day. I wish I'd found it sooner. I was going to leave university last year because I was so unhappy with where I was living."

She likes the privacy and peace of her studio flat, which suits her work pattern because she is on shifts at York District Hospital. "I work nights and early mornings and like how I am at the end of a corridor. I find that people are really considerate."

Like Rex, Jess says she has made new friends at Vita. The inviting communal spaces and a busy social programme of events are a great way for students to mix, they say. Last weekend there was a Winter Wonderland Christmas fair staged in the courtyard – to which the former nuns were invited.

Around 80 per cent of Vita's students are from overseas. There is a reception desk and concierge – which gives students and their parents peace of mind, says Victoria Haley, PR spokesperson for Vita.

"We host a lot of events too which helps incorporate them into a social life," she adds. "Later in the year, we talk to them about opportunities with their careers and give them advice. We want to be more than student accommodation."

Victoria said a lot of students held down jobs or lived with their partners in order to help pay their rent. Some received help from their parents too, she added.

Jess says she can't wait until summer, when she can enjoy barbecues in the courtyard.

One thing she is not looking forward to is moving out – she knows that luxury living will come to an end. "Rent is so expensive. I'd like to live on my own, but in reality, no! I will have to go back and live with my mum in Liverpool."