To move from London to Leeds or Bristol? What are costs of living like?

[Hopefulstudent]

Ok, so I have applied as a mature student to courses in Leeds and Bristol.

Reading different advice sites I can see Leeds is much cheaper, you can get rooms in shared houses for about £350 - 450. Bristol about £600 so still cheaper than London.

My questions are:

Do those prices sound accurate for rent, or do they only sound realistic for very basic student shares? I am disabled so need to rent in a comfortable, well-equipped house share with good transport links.

Apart from rent, I find London a place I can live very cheaply. There's always a promotional offer somewhere for cinema, good prices for eating out due to competition, transport is capped on the trains with my disabled person's railcard, I'm near Aldi, etc. Will I be able to find reasonably priced way of living in Leeds or Bristol?

Or are things other than rent quite expensive? I'm guessing Bristol will be the more expensive for everything?

I live near Bristol and there's loads of expensive but nice student accommodation. Buses are expensive too. If you like a drink there's something for all prices from 'Spoons to posh cocktail bars. Ditto restaurants.

Leeds Leeds Leeds!
You could in the city centre get a 1 bed flat for maybe a bit more or a nice room share for that amount in the more student areas.

It's a thriving but fairly compact city with lots to do, close to other cities and towns for a change of scenery and also great access to the countryside.

It's pretty cheap all round I would say.

I know nothing about Leeds so no commentary there but live in Bristol after having moved from London a year ago. Bristol is still pretty expensive compared to a lot of cities, although not as expensive as London of course. My rent for a 2bed house on the outskirts of Bristol is £800 a month, whereas in London I was paying double that for a Zone 4 area. There’s quite a lot to do and a lot of nice areas although traffic is shit due to a never ending amount of roadworks. Lots of things to do if you have DC as well.

I definitely wouldn't go for the independent student halls in either city, they're so expensive. I'm sure they book up very quickly too with students in the 18 - 25 bracket.

I've been to Bristol and thought it was a nice city, not been to Leeds yet but it sounds great too.

Yeah transport is one of the things us Londoners always here is expensive outside London. Some of the prices I've read on here sound crazy. I suppose there is some student discount for buying a weekly bus ticket though too?

I want to do proper research ie check out bus company sites but also am scared to because I don't have any offers yet! I'm jumping too far ahead.

I live about 10 miles from Leeds City Centre and know it fairly well. I don't know Bristol at all (so can't comment on it).

Transport in London is much more convenient than in Leeds, but I guess that goes for other regional cities. That said when I worked in Leeds CC a few years back I could get a monthly bus pass for around £60 pm. Commuting took 30mins - 1hr each way depending on which bus I used. You can get from London to Leeds via train in just over 2 hours.

It's an attractive city with excellent shopping and a compact city centre which is easy to navigate. There is a good nightlife with lots of little relaxed bars (though attracts hen/stag parties at the weekend). There's a strong student presence and lots of graduates stay and find employment in the city. I wouldn't say the city centre is cheap but then I live in the unfashionable provinces in the middle of the county!

Headingley is one of the big student areas and seen as a bit of an up and coming spot.

The accommodation in Headingley is in old houses and may not suit someone eith disabilities (depending on the nature of them). It has always been a studenty area and, unfortunately, enjoys the dubious reputation of being the postcode with the highest number of burglaries.

I know and like both Bristol and Leeds. Both are busy with lots to do in terms of music/events etc. As you've already said, Leeds much cheaper for accommodation.

But in terms of travel, Bristol is massively congested, and getting anywhere on a bus during rush hour takes ages. So bear in mind how far away from the uni you would be living. Leeds much better for public transport and really well serviced with trains as well as buses.