Sorting last-minute student accommodation

Students sharing house

So you’ve got your place through Clearing, but where are you going to stay while at uni? Here’s our guide to the options available to students still to sort out a place to lay their head…

Once you have bagged a place on a course, your first big choice is to decide where you’re going to live. Despite going through Clearing, you might still be able to apply for university-owned accommodation, but you may well have to look for somewhere to live in the private sector of purpose-built student accommodation and rented rooms, flats and houses in the surrounding city. 

University-owned accommodation

What’s on offer

There are many different types of accommodation available within universities, both within individual institutions and across the whole country, so it is hard to generalise. However, the most traditional type of accommodation is a student halls – a large building made of study-bedrooms, with students sharing bathrooms and either sharing a kitchen or having breakfast and an evening meal provided in a canteen.

Apart from the bed, desk and other furniture you would expect, the study-bedrooms will usually also have a sink and, of course, a Wi-Fi connection. These days, it is becoming rarer to find halls of residence that offer meals, and the most up-to-date buildings now have all rooms with en-suite bathrooms as standard, although these do cost more to rent.

The second main arrangement you are likely to find is that of the self-contained flat in which four or five students have study bedrooms and share a dining-living-kitchen area and a bathroom.

The advantages

One of the great advantages of being in university-owned accommodation is that halls tend to be located on-campus, or near the university, which can make a difference to your social life because of the mix of students you will meet in them. However, don’t worry that uni social life will be over if you don’t get a place in halls – thousands of students don’t get into halls, and an increasing number live at home, and their social lives are usually no less active than their fellow students!

The final advantage is cost. Prices can sometimes appear expensive in comparison to some of the options in the private sector, but it is very difficult to make a direct comparison as university bills will always include electricity, water and heating costs, free broadband and, in some cases, insurance. All of these would be charged separately in the private sector (unless you’re in a private student residence) and all would be more complicated to arrange.

The private sector

In any university city, there will be a thriving market in private accommodation. This falls into two types:

1. Private student residences

First there are the private halls of residence, which are operated by commercial companies and which generally cater to the top end of the market (and therefore often have top-end prices to match!).

In recent years, the emergence of these private apartment blocks purpose-built for university students has certainly raised standards and expectations of student accommodation across the board. The furnishings are at least as good as you’d find in a budget hotel, while on-site facilities include high-speed Wi-Fi, common room, communal laundries, satellite/cable TV and on-demand services and 24-hour security. The standard of fixtures and fittings and the facilities on offer at private halls is improving all the time, with new accommodation blocks cropping up in major student cities every year, so don’t be surprised to find an on-site gym, bar and even swimming pool at the newer residences.

En-suites are now the gold standard and the latest must-have convenience is the dishwasher. One developer in Manchester said this was because: ‘Students don’t argue about who does the laundry, they fall out about who does the washing up!’

Many of the providers of purpose-built student residences have voluntarily joined the National Code of Standards for developments managed by private operators, and in doing so have committed themselves to maintaining a minimum set of professional standards for their accommodation and how they manage their residences.

You can check out which private halls still have rooms available at iStudentAccommodation.com.

2. Renting a house or flat

Secondly you will find many private landlords renting out houses or flats to groups of students, or renting out their spare rooms in their own homes to single students (known as lodging). Competition from the private halls has sharpened the presentational skills of these private landlords, with some now offering Ikea-style furnishings and a cleaning service.

If you go through the accommodation office of the university, you are guaranteed to be dealing with private landlords who understand the student market. Many universities have an accreditation scheme for off-campus accommodation that they advertise, which means landlords have agreed to follow a certain code of conduct to ensure the fair and efficient management of their properties, and that they meet all health and safety requirements. For example, this will ensure that there are the necessary fire escapes are in place, that the furniture is fire retardant, and that the annual statutory check on gas appliances has been done. Because the landlord is advertising through the university, you will also have some support if you feel there is something that needs to be improved.

Once you go beyond the accommodation office, you will find even more options. There will be many more shared houses and flats, bedsits (where you share bathroom facilities and which have limited cooking equipment), single rooms in family houses (often a cheap option, but which do require you to be quite adaptable) and hostels (a very cheap option run by charities, some of which might cater to students only from a particular country).

If you’d like to share a house with fellow students, check out sites like The Student Room to chat to others heading off to the same uni as you and who may also be looking for potential housemates.

In any private situation, the first month’s rent will have to be paid in advance, and on top of this there will be a deposit (which is usually equal to a month’s rent). The deposit is returnable when you leave, but it is held by the landlord to safeguard them against the cost of breakages or a failure to pay the rent. New legislation means that landlords must now put your deposit in a government-backed tenancy deposit scheme. This ensures you’ll get your deposit back within 10 days of the end of the tenancy if you meet the terms of the tenancy agreement, don’t damage the property and pay your bills.

Rental prices in the private-sector vary greatly across the country, with London clearly the most expensive UK student city, but when absorbed into the total cost of studying at university they should not vary so much as to become a deciding factor compared to the course and university that you’ve chosen. 

Choosing your accommodation

What type of student accommodation will suit you best? Here are some steps to help you decide…

Step 1: university-owned or privately owned accommodation?

First you need to decide whether you would prefer to live in accommodation that belongs to the college or university where you are studying, or if you would prefer to rent a privately owned flat or house.

Step 2: rank price, privacy and convenience in terms of importance

Once you have decided what type of accommodation you would prefer, your next task is to rank the following three factors in terms of how important they are to you when deciding where to live:

  • cost (are you on a really tight budget, or would you prefer to pay extra to stay in slightly more expensive accommodation?)
  • convenience (will you have far to go to attend lectures and use the institution’s facilities, and, if so, is that important to you?)
  • privacy (do you value your own privacy, or would you enjoy the company of living with other students?)

Step 3: to cook or not to cook?

Do you want meals included in your rent? There are lots of factors to consider here.

It can be expensive and time-consuming to cook for one, and, if you have no experience of cooking or fending for yourself you might not realise the effort involved and the detrimental effects it can have on your health if you don’t get it right. On the other hand, you might find you would prefer the independence of being able to choose when, what and where you eat, and you can keep costs down by cooking as a house rather than individually.

There are plenty of options on offer, so although you may not get a place in university-owned accommodation if you go through Clearing, chances are you’ll find something suitable in the private sector – and there may well be the opportunity to join a waiting list and move into uni halls later in the term if a room becomes available and you’ve really got your heart set on living on campus.

Best of luck with your accommodation search!

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