Cost of second year accomodation (not halls)

[BeMintViper]

My eldest DS (20) is currently in his first year and we are paying £9000 for his accomodation in halls.
DS has told us that next year when he moves to a student house his accomodation will, apparently be much less expensive. That would be very welcome, as we have four other DC still at home; however I am unsure whether what he has said is entirely accurate and there doesnt seem to be much info online re potential costs.
Has anybody noticed a reduction in cost when your DC have moved out of halls, or is DS mistaken/having me on?

We are young parents (late thirties/early forties) and so none of our friend's DC have gone off to uni yet and cant therefore offer advice.

Thanks

Yes, it was cheaper for DD1. I think her rent is something like £125/week including bills and halls were more like £170 a week.

Very much depends on where he is?

Edinburgh, a major tourist destination, is outrageous for long term, city lets as there are so many airbnb’s. Quality for students not always great, though student DC’s loved it and it was balanced by really great part time jobs in hospitality with excellent tips!
One of my DC’s in Edinburgh, paid £800 a month, 6 of them sharing a flat with the only communal space, a kitchen with a two seater sofa and a small table and chairs crammed in!

Other towns and cities (Hull, Sunderland, Lancaster, Leicester for instance) maybe not so much.

Halls usually include more services (cleaning of communal areas etc) so are usually more. The difference depends a bit on location and whether there's 6 of them sharing a house or 2 sharing a luxury flat though!
Friends who shared less desirable houses further from their unis saved a lot on rent but probably spent a chunk of that on taxis home late at night so location does matter.

I’m early 30s so my only experience is when I went to uni… a while ago 😆
But second and third year usually consist of a house share. Say 4 uni friends for example, splitting the rent and bills. Or a landlord letting rooms specifically to uni students.

Try rent a room website for a rough idea of costs. But I would expect it to be less.

Yes it very much depends on where.

£9k is a lot for halls unless that's catered? Ds2 paid about £4k and even now that hall is about £5k.

Dd in Leicester had v cheap house, ds2 in Loughborough has paid varying rents (it also depends if bills are included). Currently just under £7k Inc bills, nice house tho.

Remember that halls are just for 40 weeks usually but a house is for 12 months.

Can you say where? Bristol is ££ as is Bath, Leeds and Notts and Sheffield can be cheaper.

Per week is usually cheaper, but it will probably be for 52 weeks rather than the usual 40 in halls.

We have found that it works out pretty much the same over the year as a whole. Also take into account that there may be times when you are paying two lots of rent (and the student has moved back home!!) as house contracts may begin in June. This is helpful in the final year as they move out before they are liable for council tax.

Having said that, it is possibly cheaper in yr2 if they are in very expensive halls for that university: big en-suites/ fancy communal areas etc. If the £9k is a pretty standard room, that will be a similar rent.

Which uni? That will help with ideas of costs.

Thanks for all replies, they are very helpful.
He is in Newcastle, in university owned accom and yes, he has a large room and en suite right on campus so possibly one of the more expensive choices; however with Newcastle you essentially have to wait in a queue and then grab whatever is both reasonable and available so I didnt see many less expensive options. No, the halls is not catered either.

I doubt he will be looking for a luxury flatshare, he has said that he thinks he will be sharing with a few others next year, not just one or two.

I didnt realise we would need to be renting from June, as he will be home from May until September, when term begins again although I suppose he will be glad to have a place in Newcastle over the summer if friends will be up there too?

I appreciate the advice given, its a bit of a minefield with your first at uni tbh. I expect I will be an expert by the time DC5 comes to go (and very possibly bankrupt 🤣)

Renters Rights Bill will come in this academic year, it will affect houses and apartments but not halls or purpose built student accommodation. Students will be able to give 2 months notice to leave so they probably won't have to pay for the summer months, unless they want to stay.

Likely many homes let to students will ultimately be sold as it's unhelpful to those landlords.

For DD and DS living ‘out’ was more expensive once bills etc were added in. There were also requests to be a guarantor which made me nervous.

Wow £9k is a lot for SC - in Nottingham or Lboro that would get you a catered room (not en suite tho tbf).

Anyway be that as it may. Newcastle yes almost certainly cheaper per week but yes you rent from start of July or end of June - landlords don't want their house not paying from.june to Sept.

Can you or even he not scope out a few? People are probably looking now for next year.

Actually not to be to stalkery, but I just scoped out Newcastle accomm in case anyone looks and thinks £9k is standard. Your ds seems to have unluckily landed (or maybe luckily! I am sure it’s lovely) in the most ££ halls Newcastle offers. Ds looked there and I was sure the halls were pretty reasonable as we made a point of checking. So there are lots of cheaper options even for en suite, tho it sounds as tho the allocation system is not the best.

The difference is length of contract. Yr2 they usually pay 52 weeks versus uni halls around 40 weeks, it makes a big difference.
Year 1 my dc chose cheapest halls (none en-suite) and I paid £6500. This year it’s £700 a month in private rental £8400 a year plus bills. Glasgow.
The only advantage to paying summer was they could move stuff from halls to new room. She was abroad so paying £700 a month for 3 months empty was irritating.

Can I also say they usually rent yr2 jointly and need a parent guarantor each meaning if one drops out the others are responsible for covering rent and ultimately you as parents are on hook for it.

Lancaster housing is expensive for students.

It really depends on where he is. IN expensive areas like Brighton or Bristol then student halls are often subsidised by the university so private housing can be a lot more expensive. But cities like Sheffield or Liverpool for example, private housing can be cheaper than the often private halls.

Yes there are many cheaper options at Newcastle, you just aren't guaranteed to be able to choose them
DS was keen on the View (180 pw) but that wasn't an available option when we got to the front of the queue. Also to bear in mind for anybody looking at Newcastle accom; it doeant matter what time you log on. You are randomly allocated a place in the queue at 09:00, so you can choose from what is still available. It really is pot luck.

You can probably see which accom DS is at, given your perusal of the options. I dont want to name it. However for anybody looking next year, I have found it to be worth the cost as he is safe on campus, the communal areas are large, modern and beautifully maintained and his actual room is bigger than his one at home! The en suite is quite roomy too. Its a far cry from my shoebox in Edgbaston halls twenty years ago!

I do feel that the Newcastle process is quite chaotic and if we hadnt been (just about) able to afford the more expensive option then the others were not something we would have been paeticularly happy with. So there is that.

However his second choice was York and Newcastle prices seemed a drop in the ocean compared to theirs.

Yes for sure @BeMintViper it sounds as tho it is a very nice room and you certs get what you pay for, If you can afford it then it sounds as tho it is worth the money.

The process does sound chaotic tho so that's worth a flag. Maybe they will change it (DS2's Lboro accomm first year application was a bit of a mare and I believe that process has improved – tho in the end he was able to swap to his very cheap room).

You do really get what you pay for with uni accomm actually – a £5k halls room will be small, probs single bed with shared bathrooms and kitchen. If you want en suite or catered or big room or double bed or living room as well as kitchen then it will cost more. I think as long as people assess this upfront then all is good.

Hope he is enjoying Newcastle - great city.

DD is at York 😬 costs a small fortune

I don’t know if this will help. When I was at uni, houses were almost exclusively on a 1 year contract, July-June. No one needed a house in July and August, but if you didn’t sign the contract to start from July, someone else would. You could wait til mid August and try and sort a house then but there was not much left, especially if you were a group looking for a whole house rather than an individual looking for a room (this you could generally pick up in September due to people dropping out last minute).

How will being able to give notice help in this situation, as students generally need the house for at least some of June?

Fine if rentals are September-August but landlords are wise to this.

@BeMintVipertell him to look at Erskine Chambers in Granger street. My dd lived there last year and it was by far the best accommodation she had. There are a few flats in the building and as far as I could tell they were all owned by the same landlord and she was really good.

My dd lived in the full loan for all three years at Newcastle, her halls were £5000 and second and third year were cheaper than that. Living in the city centre rather than Jesmond or Sandyford means no transport costs.

She lived in Leazas Arcade in second year and it was the worst place I’ve ever been. Her window overlooked a flat roof and the flat roof was covered in rubbish. So avoid that!

Also dd says try Seekers on the corner of Thomas street as they are ‘not dodgy as hell’.

The same here (expensive city) because it's year round

DD pays £600 including bills, it could have been less but its a nice house with only 3 of them living there
We paid £10500 last year but that was catered so we probably pay around £900pm now to her so about the same really

My understanding is that even if you supposedly have a 1 year contract you can leave when you want. But I appreciate if it's an early start rather than going to September it doesn't help so much

I hadn’t factored in next summer in my calculations and forgot that none of that will be covered by the maintenance loan as we will have used that up paying for term 3. So I have to pay probably 700-800 a month for the entire summer for an empty house. It’s such a con - we used to pay half rent back in the 90s and it was about £80 (£160 a month for our rent back then)
How on earth are normal people meant to help top up their kids loans these days? We don’t have a spare £800 a month. It’s bonkers.