Student houses advice please!

[Theas18]

Hi

DD1 is at Nottingham looking to rent a house for 6 or 7 next year. She's actively looking now as she has some free time.

We have talked about living within your budget (ie the living expenses element of the student loan) etc. It's not possible in hall to live to that budget and we have topped up. I hope it's possible next year....

Is it reasonable to assume that she should be able to live within her student loan- she has a bit of extra income from a singing bursary for her socialising etc

THis year we have tried to pay as much as we can to make her regular outgoings small- for instance she had a load of nice toiletries etc as part of her Xmas pressies.

How much rent (and other costs if you know them) do your student offspring incur, and how do they finance any extra costs? She doesn't really have scope for another term time job as she sings 2 nights/week and sundays (and anyway she's there to study and needs enough time to do that!).

I've looked at various websites but the costs are so varied I've no idea!

Thanks!

[goinggetstough]

I think it will be possible, but I am not sure how expensive student houses are to rent in Nottingham and if your DD gets a full maintenance loan.
Just remember that a large deposit is required to secure the property (seems to be larger if you go through an agency). Bills include the obvious like:

• gas
  
• electricity
  
• internet
  

but also:

• water rates
  
• tv licence
  
• no council tax as they are students
  

My DC pays 375 pounds per month for rent and 40 pounds bills on top of that. Fuel is obviously the main cost here.
Food bills are 20 pounds per week approx I believe which my DC covers with a job.
Hope this helps.

[Bearcat]

DS2 at Nottm University as was DS1
We have paid £3801 for his house this year and the new house next year is about the same give or take a few pounds.
There are 7 of them.
I'm sure you can get houses for less than this (DS1 seemed to pay from about £68 - 72 per week, but he knew girls in a very nice student house paying £95 a week).
I think there is an over supply in Nottm of student houses, you always see houses for rent when returning them in September.
Probably when you are getting to 7 or 8 sharing there probably is less choice than for smaller numbers.
We do pay for our sons house and give him an allowance, but he also does waiting / bar work in his holidays and has to pay for his bills, food and travel out of this (call these our private education years!)

[sandripples]

We paid our DD's accommodation bills up to £3000 per year (she graduated last summer). She paid everything else out of her loan, was frugal and had enough to do a bit of travelling. She said that friends whose parent did not make a signifcant contribution got into pretty bad debt (they weren't allowed to work at her uni). We'll make same contribution to DS as although costs have risen our incomes have been stuck! So it'll be a bit harder for him, unfortunately.

[fitflopqueen]

My DD also a first year student, she and 5 friends have just reserved their second year house for Sept coming, she will pay £220 per month rent, utilities, council tax, broadband on top. This year her loan has paid for nearly all her accommodation and we give her £100/week (for everything else, food, flights home, clothes etc).

[AuntySib]

My son shares a flat with 3 others in London, he pays £440 pcm. He gets a loan of around 6k ( I think) and his grandma gives him £100 pm. He manages fine on that, but doesn't go out or drink much, doesn't smoke, has some takeaways. I think they pay about £100 a month each into a kitty for bills, not including food. Hope that helps.

[goinggetstough]

Wow fitflop where does your dc go to uni that is a fantastically reasonable rent. You mention council tax, she won't pay this as a student.

[exoticfruits]

DS manages on his loan and a very small top up. He is in the north with lower rents. He is frugal, last time I Skyped he was wearing a thick fleecy top-they hadn't put the heating on.

[gettingalifenow]

My DCs can't manage their rents within their student loans - remember that house lets are generally for 52 weeks, like it or not, so there is a wasted cost there.

DS's rent is £373 PCM plus bills (about £200 per term) and DD has just signed a else for £85 per week and is expecting another £10 per week for bills. Both properties are just typical student house, not top of the range at all.

[IShallWearMidnight]

DD1 is currently looking at houses for her second year, and she's expecting to pay £80-£85 per week plus bills for a reasonable-ish place. Contracts are for 52 weeks though, which is hard (back in the olden days when I was a student we paid half rent for holidays, which meat that you could leave your stuff there).

[fitflopqueen]

Going, she is at Queens Belfast.
Also when looking at the houses, the agents were quite keen for them to sign up so she walked out and called her dad re negotiating. went back in, said it was too much, her pals were getting stressed at this point. They all walked away, agent rang them later with lower rent and 10 months rather than 12. Pity she cant be as pushy on the job front.

[MOSagain]

DS has just found a house for his second year with 3 friends which is going to be 73 pw plus bills. He has managed to get himself a job at the campus shop which is good news and it seems that he can work up to a maximum of 30 hrs per week there although realistically he won't do anywhere near that. Hopefully he will earn enough though to make the difference between finishing Uni without an overdraft.

[Yellowtip]

DD2 is paying £365pm plus bills for a ten month lease in a shared house of 6. Stereotypical student house in the student area of Oxford.

She works in the summer holidays but not in term time or in the short holidays.

[amothersplaceisinthewrong]

I don't think you could live entirely on a student loan unless you were incredibily thrifty. My daughter is at Liverpool and pays £65 a week (plus bills) in rent, 52 weeks a year which equates to the whole of her student loan (she does not qualify for the final 25% of the loan) And Liverpool is cheaper than a lot of cities We actually pay the rent for her and she has the loan to live on for everything else supplemented by a Saturday job.