Student rented accommodation - any Unis to avoid or recommend

[Barwell76]

Hi
My ds is in year 12 and he is starting to think about Uni choices for his application next year.
As well as thinking about courses and the location we are trying to research accommodation. There is a lot of info on the Uni website about Halls in the first year, some guarantee if you firm the offer, some guarantee if firm or insurance.
But I was wondering about your student DCs recent experience with finding private rentals for year 2 and 3. I was reading an old thread about a shortage of rentals in St Andrews and it got me thinking which other cities do students find it hard to find reasonably priced accommodation. (He isnt considering London Unis due to price, probably not Scotland either due to distance).

You may want to look at WWIKAU on Facebook and see the various threads about the cost of accommodation at various unis. DS will benppaying £640 per calendar month for a full year tenancy plus bills in Bristol for 2022/23.

Oxford and Cambridge colleges usually offer high quality accommodation. It works out cheap as they only charge for the nights actually occupied and they have short terms. Some colleges offer three years - some expect second years to find their own.

The vast majority of universities do not offer 2nd and 3rd year accommodation. £640 a month is fairly steep - even for Bristol. There would have been cheaper options.

I would look at student rental web sites. I would say Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield are relatively cheap cities to live in for students. Plenty of terraced houses! Manchester isn’t too pricy either.

However I would never recommend anyone chooses a university based on possible accommodation costs. It’s not sensible. Choose the best universities for your subject and where you might wish to live and thrive. No point having cheap housing if you hate the course!

Not to dodge your question, but I would really urge your DS to find unis and courses he likes first and pick from the best accommodation options from there.

Some popular southern cities might have higher student prices, but other than that I'd say there isn't too much difference in cost and availability if you're looking in the right areas. Most unis will have a Facebook group or something similar to advertise student rentals - I'd advise going through a reputable letting agent if possible but social media is always a good place to start to see what's out there.

The greatest factor in housing costs is likely to be bedroom size/distance from campus and amenities. Even if your DS chooses a uni where housing is comparatively higher, it should be up to him (within reason) as to whether he chooses a smaller house 30 mins away from his dream uni, or a modern one near campus in a uni that he cares less about, for example. Most students are happy to live somewhere a bit dingy as long as it's safe, but just be aware you might drive the cost up with heating etc if you try and be too careful with money.

Just as a rough indicator I paid £350 per month for a 6-person house right by my campus, in a pretty average southern uni city. This was 5 years ago and the house itself was okay - YMMV though definitely. For a decent, more modern place in a popular city you could be looking anywhere from £400 to £600pcm.

I understand this doesn't answer your question but as a semi-recent uni student you really cannot predict what's going to happen. I know some big cities (Birmingham, Manchester etc) do have rental crises but if you look on student pages there are still rooms being let out. I would say that, anywhere you go, getting in early for the upcoming year (sometimes as early as Jan for a July start) is your best bet.

If you're after specific answers though I'd stick to the midlands/north.

Under £100 a week now might be more difficult to find. However I agree with @boreduser, there is no point having cheaper accommodation if the course doesn’t meet expectations. If a city has a uni or two, it will have a variety of student accommodation for y2 onwards. Location does determine price but do does the quality of the accommodation and the price of property locally. You won’t find very cheap rents where prices of property are high but you might find amazing universities!

Newcastle, not too bad, Swansea, very reasonable. Bristol expensive, St Andrews expensive, all London expensive. York sent some of their Freshers to Hull and Bristol to Bath and elsewhere. For second and third years it depends where in a city you live (if a small area is particularly favoured by students it can bump up prices in that area, eg Jesmond in Newcastle) and also the size of the property, larger properties tend to work out cheaper per person.

Everyone says accommodation is cheap in Oxford colleges. But forget to mention that some students are unfortunate enough to choose or be pooled to a college that doesn’t offer accommodation for all 3 years. Then you have to find a place in the most expensive city to live in outside London. This happened to my DD who ended up in a not particularly nice house on the outskirts of the city when most of her friends were in college accommodation miles from her.

At least if she had been in Bristol she could have stayed in Clifton near the city centre and all her friends would also have been living out. That would have been worth £640 per month for her social life and mental health!

My ds went to Warwick and there was a decent selection of on campus accommodation at various price points.
Many second and third years live in leamington which is much nicer than Coventry, but getting the bus to and from campus can be a real pain. Ds stayed in Coventry about 30 mins walk from the university. No problem finding anywhere.

Oxford has a lot of student accommodation for Brookes students. Many students don’t get all 3 years and live out with friends they make in college. Pooling doesn’t really disadvantage students. If you know you are living in out in Y2, I guess you need friends from your college who are in the same boat. Transport in Oxford is good. £147.50 a week is quite a lot for Bristol! Even for Clifton.

My daughter (first year uni of Liverpool) has just secured her second year house in Smithdown (short bus ride from uni) for £105 per week including bills which I think is pretty reasonable. It's a 52 week contract. I couldn't believe how early into their first year they needed to start thinking about it!

Lots of popular unis it will be December/Jan. however it depends when landlords list the properties. They don’t all list very early.

Lots of accommodation in Bristol and a great city. Dad loved it and stayed afterwards( travelling now) she stayed in Clifton, Bishopston, Horfield, near the pool and Gloucester Road. They were paying just under £400 then I can’t imagine it is £650 must be very good.

Lancaster is very popular and accommodation reasonable. DS2 is at Leeds but he just stays overnight. Waiting for his course to start again re covid!
Edgehill is a lovely campus I did a course that I went to hand in there. I would imagine accommodation wouldn’t be too bad.
Friend has a son in Newcastle and he has managed to find accommodation easily. Durham still popular accommodation mixed but some large houses another friend’s son stayed in one for 12. He is still there working at the Uni now. His sister went to Lancaster and enjoyed it.
He needs to be very proactive as it goes quickly.

Warwick great for halls and private. Lots of choice and easy to find at around £100 a week. Plus private only 11 months.
Bristol v expensive for halls and private. Private £150 a week and 12 months and property snapped up.
Accommodation is a very important factor and a lot of unis now have lots with catering cards and en suites which push up price. Eg Birmingham where private is great but first year not so.
Manchester takes budget into account when allocating accommodation which lots don’t.

You'll get a lot more for your money if you avoid affluent cities in the south. Bristol, Bath, Oxford, Exeter are all notoriously expensive. You'll get a cheaper room in the Midlands or North. Cardiff and Swansea are also cheap for student rentals.

However it’s course snd university that are the most important. Not rents!

I’ve just looked at Rightmove student lets for Bristol. Clifton as you would expect can be around £145 a week but I found several that were less quite easily. Others were below £140 and further out they were less. So you do not have to pay £150 a week to live in Bristol in a private rented flat with 4 plus other students.

£140 or £150 is still a lot. Other issue is that when rents are generally high it’s not always easy to find friends on same budget.
Loughborough is cheap. Nephew paying £62 a week!

@HighSpeed33

Oxford and Cambridge colleges usually offer high quality accommodation. It works out cheap as they only charge for the nights actually occupied and they have short terms. Some colleges offer three years - some expect second years to find their own.

Depends on the college. Not all have enough accommodation for all 3 years and private rents are eyewatering.

@Debir
These were the more expensive areas. Other areas are cheaper but not as convenient. There is a premium for Clifton. Also when DD was there she found there was a variety of accommodation. Some really wasn’t great but it was cheaper. I still would not snub the southern/south western universities based on this alone. They more than compensate in other ways. London is more expensive than anywhere else but again travelling further out makes it cheaper.

I think it’s easy enough to find friends on your budget. Like attracts like! These universities do have a variety of students and people really don’t avoid universities due to year 2/3 costs. Some have high 1st year costs! Liverpool for one! I think students find their tribe!

Whilst yes the uni and course are what matters most if a potential student finds they cannot choose between two that are similar then obviously it does make sense to look at other factors such as cost of living as it would have a massive impact on their life whilst there if they end up paying £30 a week more at one place compared to another that is comparable in course and prestige etc elsewhere.

The house my DS has signed up for is for 10 students sharing and there simply are not that many that can house that many available.

The other issue this year is that there are fewer with bills included or the rates for bills included have been increased or specific limits placed thereon due to the fuel crisis.

Places like Bristol etc who ended up having to seek out additional halls and place first years in other towns such as Bath also will have increased competition for the year two/three accommodation available making it a seller's market. It is not a normal year and historic data is not particularly relevant except to say it is generally more expensive than many other places that offer just as good a course.

Many students are finding that those that are on agents websites have already gone and even on MN there are stories of 8 groups being signed up to view with the property already gone by the time some see it or have their viewing cancelled.

When my DD was at uni in Birmingham she told me her house was one of the most desirable. It was so bad I never took her grand mother on a visit. However, they always had people knocking on the door asking when they were finishing their degrees and halfway through their year 3 continuing students had already arranged with the landlord to take over the house.
At Emmanuel College, Cambridge students live in for their first year. Then there is a ballot. My DS and his friends came bottom so their 2nd year was spent in a hall on the river (really quite nice but with a dragon of a matron) . The results were reversed for the final year so they got a beautiful house on Parkers Piece.
As for choosing a uni based on accommodation, you don’t know who you will become friendly with and what accommodation that might lead to.

Ruston has been short of first year accommodation for a while. They used to have “get to know you” says for insurance students to look at the private sector. It’s now inevitable with so many qualifying for the courses.

I do think some students don’t evaluate courses. Some “first time to university in the family” students do think that all courses are the same and choose a local uni or a less prestigious one to stay near home.

Your DS needs to chose the uni by the course he is interested in, not base his future on accomodation choices.

Cheapest is Oxbridge as you live in hall often for 3 years and is cheaper.
We found Bristol for 3 of mine very good not just as a university but lovely halls in Stoke Bishop and then rented houses after that.

If you pick just on level of rents however people would then rule out very good London universities such as LSE. I think it is a mistake to choose based on cost otherwise you might end up at university only with people who are in poverty which is not quite the best reason to go.

University of Kent (the campus near Canterbury, I don’t know about Medway) is very good for campus accommodation and rental houses in the area. When my DC went they said all year one students would get housed on the campus.
The rental houses for year two and three students are in areas you can walk into Canterbury and to the campus or there are regular buses available and the university offers a special deal on a bus pass.They also allow some tear two and three students to live on campus although usually they can’t pick the exact accommodation they want.