Putting this in Chat as I think the university boards are mainly concerned with undergraduates rather than postgraduates - but may be wrong!
DS1 is in his final year but wants to stay in the area after he graduates. He has four friends in the same position so they are looking for a 5 bed property from Sept. when their current lease runs out. A lot of the student lets have already gone and those coming up are getting snapped up quickly. General rentals seem to come onto the market a month or so before their start date so would it be too risky to wait until summer to start looking? They'd obviously all need jobs sorted but they're all applying now, or already have p/t jobs that could become f/t. Does anyone have any experience of this - DS is asking me for advice but I don't know the answer!