The Best Way to Find Student Housing
Picture this, you’re bright-eyed and bushy-tailed arriving at your new life as a university student, unsure of what to expect but excited. You’ve been given a collection of letters and numbers signifying your new “digs”. On arrival, you are greeted by six to ten of your new best friends; you’re all in the same metaphorical boat. These people are currently the only people you really know to begin with. After about a month you are bombarded with frantic people and rumoured deadlines saying you must sort out next year’s accommodation. The security of campus halls is behind you and it’s up to you to find where you’ll be sleeping. What’s great is that you get to choose who you will be sharing this new place with.
Finding the right people
Conditions are harder to guarantee on a budget, but the people you live with are within your control. A not-so-nice house can feel way better with the right people than a lovely house with the wrong people. In my opinion, this should be your highest priority. If you get it right the first time, you may not have to think about it again and the same group may carry on to the next year.
Your current housemates will obviously be your first choice, and that is a very reasonable idea, especially if everything has gone well this year. However, this shouldn’t stop you from exploring other options. Living with your current housemates is purely by chance if you’re in university accommodation, it is statistically unlikely that you’re all going to be ideal housemates for each other.
When looking for your housemates, it’s best to start with a core group of two or three people that you know very well. This gives you a good idea of what to expect from them and a bigger group can be built from this core foundation if you would like.
Tip: Just because you get on doesn’t mean you’ll be perfect housemates. Remember, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
From here, work out that you’re all on the same page regarding key decisions: the size of the house, the budget, how much going out is a priority, boy/girl split. Once that’s all clear and you’re hopefully all on the same page, you can stay as a smaller group, or you can look for others who want the same things. Look for prospective housemates on your course or from your societies/activities. If that doesn’t work out, post as a group on a community page for your university (is “overheard at X university” still a thing?).
Once you have your people, you should meet together as a group; this could be your new house dynamic! Do a social activity, like meeting for a coffee, or going for a drink. Use this as a chance to test the waters. Find out about them and double-check they fit the decisions you agreed on as a house. Cover expectations with each other and lay out how you would like the year to look like living together. Be clear and honest and trust your gut.
Where to look
There are a few options to explore. Your university may have fairs for private landlords. You may prefer to go with an estate agent who deals with multiple houses, suggesting consistency and reliability. Private student housing complexes may be an option. Each option has its pros and cons; I would advise speaking to older students and checking community pages for estate agencies to avoid, some will have bad reputations for their treatment of students. Some agencies will be difficult because they know that they have more bargaining power in a lot of situations. However, private renting is sometimes not reliable for getting appliances fixed and private complexes are often more expensive. You must weigh up your options and do your research.
Tip: when looking for a house, the distance to campus shouldn’t be your top priority, especially if you are worried about costs. Houses will rise in price the closer to campus you get and is often more than what transport would cost from further away.
Rent/Contract
At university, I used to play a game. I would try to visit the most expensive accommodation I could. During this exploration, I visited a friend’s place that cost over twice as much as mine. After leaving, I realised they weren’t enjoying their living situation twice as much as me and therefore I was winning. The common denominator between our student experiences- is rent. This is more than just a number; it is THE number. Make sure you look at the length of the tenancy; you may think that you’ve found the perfect place until you realise that the contract is 50 weeks and you’re only planning on leaving at the beginning of summer. This happened to me when I have been paying rent for the better part of 2 months at a place that I have already moved out of. Lots of places will offer specific shorter student tenancies, not including the summer months- an easy way to save money on rent. There will always be someone to stay with (probably suffering in their 50-week contract) if you do end up deciding to stay a few weeks extra in the summer.
Tip: When you think you’ve found a place at a decent price, look up the postcode followed by “to rent”/”to let” and see if you can find other houses on the street and how much they cost. Often multiple agents will operate on the same street so you may see a range of prices.
Don’t be tempted to skip over and sign a contract without reading first, no matter how boring! It is important to check whether you are signing a contract as a group (all together/ joint tenancy) or as an individual (single tenancy). If it is the former it means that everyone will be “Jointly and severally liable”. If someone doesn’t pay, it’s up to the rest of you to do it. This again highlights the need to find the right people- are you sensing a pattern?
Make sure you check the itinerary, it should be included in the contract, it will list all the things you are paying for, chairs, tables, appliances, etc. Most student properties will be fully furnished but there are always random household bits you might forget like kettles, microwaves and TVs you might have to pool together for if you end up having to buy your own. This will also help you envision in your head what it will look like during house visits without the current tenants’ stuff.
Tip: make sure the itinerary isn’t “subject to schedule”. If it is, it will be subject to change (based on a schedule) and you won’t get all that is listed in the itinerary (this happened to me, it sucked).
Your landlord has extra responsibilities to you as the tenant of an HMO (house in multiple occupations) so make sure you’re aware of these.
Bills
How bills are dealt with will vary from house to house. They will either be included in the rent, or you will have to sort them among yourselves- your contract will tell you what utilities you are paying for separately to rent. If they aren’t included the person who has to sort them has some responsibility; however, there are some benefits to it. Paying the bills on time each month will benefit your credit score. It may involve chasing people for money, so think about who would be best to take on this role. You could also use student bundles for paying bills, but the prices for these are sometimes hiked and justified because of convenience. Make sure to explore all your options, compare prices, and think about what you value most as a household- time or money.
Running a household
The goal is to stay as far away from contention as humanly possible. But you do need to be realistic, people will have disagreements. No matter how good of friends you are, you will fall out from time to time. Turning to some practical tips- I’d advise creating a cleaning rota as early as possible, this sets realistic expectations of everyone and keeps them accountable. It’s important to make sure everyone is doing their fair share, and that no one gets passive-aggressive (it happens). Even when living with your friends you should try and make sure that you’re respectful of everyone’s boundaries, hang out in communal spaces, don’t knock on their doors incessantly, and don’t be offended when they aren’t always around. All that being said, the potential risk does get mitigated by picking the right people. Just always try to remember when you sense a potential argument growing that you are living together- there’s nothing worse than a big falling out with people you have to see day in and day out.
Here are some other useful resources to get you started:
https://www.savethestudent.org/accommodation/universities-students-pay-the-most-rent.html
Acknowledgements
My targeted ads that now exclusively show me student accommodation sites. You’re welcome trailblazers!