London Universities- how much more expensive to live?

[Shadedog]

Does the extra loan students living in London can get actually cover the extra expense of living in London or will parental top up have to be upped significantly? I have a dd applying for 2022 entry and her first choice is a London uni and then a ds who will be applying for 2023 - also London. I know that many people live their entire lives in London and this question makes me sound like a bumpkin but I am anxious about supporting two of them. Both kids currently have Saturday jobs atm and expect to have to work while studying.

I would suggest around £700 per month excluding bills in a second year flatshare is feasible in zone 2. Students need to pick their area, it would be more in more expensive parts of London. Most tenancies will be for a full calendar year. You can get a student Zip card to reduce transport costs. Food shopping I think is comparable to elsewhere ie use Lidl and Aldi and buy fruit/veg in markets. As well as accommodation the cost of going out (alcohol, entrance to venues etc) is more expensive than elsewhere.

mushroom, honestly a 10 month tenancy or a 12 month with a break clause allowing for 2 months notice that can be used after 6, is very common in London. What do you think those on 10 month Masters do?!

Everything is negotiable at the moment.

As an aside I'm quite disgusted (yet highly delighted!) that DD1 is at Royal Holloway and gets London weighting.
It's bonkers!!!
So we've pretty much swerved having to top her up as she works at an outlet on campus.
Reading these threads make me feel very grateful!!

huh? Egham is relatively expensive, certainly compared with parts of SE London. And transport costs more?

Needmoresleep yes it is but so is Surrey university just down the road but they aren't classed as a London university

DDs year2 house and now year 3 house share has been about £500 per month, both gorgeous houses

dc1 going into 3rd year,pays £780 per months excl bills in a street apparantly full of students. walk to KCL 50 min. For 12 months as per contract. Will be 2nd year he is staying there, as are all his house mates.

Getting a bit off topic, however my guess is that is historic from the days they were in Regents Park, plus there is a lot more going on in Guildford and on the Surrey campus, so less need to seek non University alternatives. I don't know where Surrey students live, but I assume Egham is relatively expensive.

Our experience is that Bristol is as expensive, if not more than London. But then DS was not a clubbing type and first was very course focussed, and his idea of a night out seemed to be to walk to a pub in Camden, drink something non alcoholic and watch people in East Asia play computer games. (He did other things...but that one was weird to us.) Larger London colleges seem to have a lot more going on campus than places like Bristol, where 'Spoons seems to be the substitute Student Union, and so more scope to be frugal yet still sociable.

Though Royal Holloway is a member of the federal University of London.

It is historically but the costs faced by London based universities are not comparable to RH.
It's worked for us thankfully and far better financially than
if she'd got into her first choice without London weighting

There isn’t a lot on rightmove for students atm
What are you searching for on rightmove? I put in student accommodation London, and there is over 2500 results? with rooms in shared houses starting at £75pw! around the £115pw you start to see the more studenty houses and are let to only students.

When looking for DS in a very specific area there were still plenty of student only let flats and houses.

Don't go near the UAL block at emily bowes unite students it is a sh*t hole

@NewYearNewTwatName

There isn’t a lot on rightmove for students atm What are you searching for on rightmove? I put in student accommodation London, and there is over 2500 results? with rooms in shared houses starting at £75pw! around the £115pw you start to see the more studenty houses and are let to only students.

When looking for DS in a very specific area there were still plenty of student only let flats and houses.

yes but if you actually lived here you would know you cannot go private on rightmove without paying thousands just to secure a place unless you want to live in a dump.

@NewYearNewTwatName

For travelling they can get a student oyster card and then add things like discounted 18-25 rail card(I think its 30% discount) onto it. The rail discount includes tubes and DLR.

I looked at UCL accommodation and quite a few of their halls start around £175 a week, for 39 weeks. For a small single non ensuite room. obviously it will depend on which hall is closest to were your DC wants to be and availability, the next prices up seems to usually go up in amounts between £20-30 more per week. again 39 weeks.

So lowest price 39 weeks at £175 = £6825.

Unfortunately starting prices at UAL seem a lot higher, but can varie a lot on which college they would be attending.

In most places you cannot book the cheapest weekly for 39 weeks they charge more for less weeks. Also the 30 percent discount doesn't apply to tube , there is a discount on the student oyster but it is still cheaper to travel tap and pay

Themeparklover the student houses are through student housing rental companies, its just they can be found on rightmove

Also the 30 percent discount doesn't apply to tube , there is a discount on the student oyster but it is still cheaper to travel tap and pay

it does apply
www.16-25railcard.co.uk/student-travel-card/

My dd has just moved to London for postgrad. Rent is expensive, if yo are lucky that your university has it's own halls they can be comparable but most private halls we were looking at were around £200 per week (as opposed to the £120-135 dd was paying in the north west.

She's actually gone early as she could not get a summer job at home (or a term time job at her last college) but she was offered the first job she applied for in London. She plans on staying over holiday periods because she can work full time during those times.

The big difference is travel. It's rare for students to be able to live on campus. Dd's travel expense come to around £38 per week. That does account for the fact that she's tubing into central London for work, if it was just going to college she would probably cycle. That's compared to a maximum of £10 per week travel that she was paying (students who live on campus in a city with everything close by would have almost no travel costs.)

Dd found her room on Facebook. She has joined an existing house-share where someone is leaving.