my son is telling me that he needs to sort out his accommodation now for September next year.

1. does he really need to be sorting it out now ?
2. The prices he is telling me appear to be way above what I can see on the likes of Zoopla. like 4 times as much. He’s telling me £250+ pppm
3. is there something like zoopla for looking for seasonal student accommodation?

I realise zoopla is offering places for now & the student demand is obviously very seasonal.

Are you sure you’ve typed that correctly?
£250pppm is at the lower end for any rented accommodation?
A quarter of that would be insanely cheap.
Did you mean pppw?

We pay out rents to accommodate graduate workers who move here (Crawley/Gatwick) for 6-12 months secondments and its upwards of £650 a month for a room in a shared house.

Where is this?

Most student rooms even in private houses are £60-70 p/w. Pricing is completely different to the ‘normal’ private sector.

Admittedly I sorted my digs out a few years ago now but I left it until the week before I started uni. I wouldn’t recommend leaving it that late and the demand for rooms had increased but I would have thought that May/June next year would still be fine.

Most unis have an accommodation office – I’d contact them for the lowdown.

I remember this craziness from uni days…

Trouble is, he’s right… the hunt for private digs for September DOES start about November time…. Daft, but as everyone does it…everyone HAS to do it….

And, the price for pay for, frankly, shite, is awful!

DrP

We’re paying £150 a week for uni halls for my boys first year in Cardiff. He is currently looking for a house for next September and is finding that the decent ones have gone already. Crazy. Prices for house share seem to be about half what we’re currently paying though. Which is nice.

Think I’m paying £450ish a month for room in a 3 bed flat in Edinburgh for son. He finishes uni end of May/ June time.

Yes you need to look now for best rooms/flats

Yep, they’ve started. New-build accommodation for next year that isn’t finished yet is being booked too
£60-£70^^^ is cheap IME, grab it 🙂

Yup. My daughter in Newcastle has started looking for next year. She’s in one of those purpose built student accommodation blocks currently. Been there, what 8 weeks? Apparently the decent housing in popular areas is already disappearing.
No idea on rents for next year yet yet but she I am paying £131 a week for 39 weeks currently. A friend of hers is paying £85 a week for a tiny room somewhere.

We’re paying £150 a week for uni halls for my boys first year in Cardiff. He is currently looking for a house for next September and is finding that the decent ones have gone already. Crazy.

Used to live in the student-y areas of Cardiff (Cathays, Roath) a few years back and most of the decent houses for the next year were taken by October! I understand that this year they were having a housing fair during freshers week and most were snapped up then. They are building a lot of the new style student blocks round town ready for next year and they’re all taken too.

If anyone has a kid in uni or going next year get your accommodation sorted as early as possible, 12 months in advance seems to be the limit now.

Were are they? In Sheffield they just keep building accommodation for students, well over the amount actually needed. So yes they feel peer pressure to book now but really they don’t have to and shouldn’t. Anything could happen between now and next September, like they could fall out with friends, find better ones, quit uni, want to transfer, have to move home to care for family etc. Default definitely they should go to the accommodation office as they will have a list of approved landlords. Sheffield is just over £110ppw for new build flats sharing.

I once spent a week or two at the start of term on a the floor (on the landing IIRC?) waiting for the inevitable early drop-outs to make space for me in uni accom. Oh happy days. It was probably only a few days really.

(I only got the PhD place in mid-Sept so couldn’t exactly have planned ahead.)

<stealth ad> Son’s room in flat available for next year in Edinburgh, just off meadows easy access to the Uni

I heard in Sheffield they just keep on taking more students, well over the number that the lecture halls can hold, such that the staff are having to double-lecture (for no extra pay, natch) 🙂

As a member of academic staff, you try and encourage the students, particular the first years, to take thier time to get to know people before they sort thier houses. But the student cohort is in a viscous circle and it does mean they are already signing up to houses. Part of the problem is the 2nd and 3rd year students know the game and know where the good houses are, so the 1st years feel they need to keep up.

Some Uni accommodation offices are trying to get all accredited providers to not release accomodation for next academic year until a specific point, e.g. the new year, but this is variable.

Oh and £250pcm seems a pretty good price. Remember that landlords over charge to allow for amount of maintaince a student property often requires! You’ll find many of those properties you are looking at on Zoopla will not allow undergraduate students. Where in the UK? That cant be London or Edinburgh.

That sounds really cheap! Minimum rent here in Brighton would be about £400pm. Competition for rooms is very high here so I can imagine looking now would be a smart move.

£250 pppm sounds extremely cheap, I remember paying half that in Plymouth in 1988.

To give you come context, this is the accomodation office for students in Leeds, Bradford and Nottingham.

http://www.unipol.org.uk

I always started looking after new years, and in Canterbury I expected to pay between 350 and 450 a month.

shuhockey – Member
Were are they? In Sheffield they just keep building accommodation for students, well over the amount actually needed.

It’s the same here in Newcastle. According to a colleague who teaching planning, the accommodation might be marketed as for students now, but that’s mainly because getting planning permission for halls is much easier than for such high density ‘normal’ apartments. Once the over supply fails to be filled for a few years he expects change of use applications to be made to the city council and the accommodation converted to apartments for anyone to buy/rent.

Cheap as chips that, and not too early. One of ours looking now in Brum, another will be leaving it later for Canterbury and will pay waaaay more.

Our daughter is in her second year in Sheffield. Last year she was in halls and even though we applied early she didn’t get where she wanted. This year’s accommodation was sorted just after starting back after Christmas but it seems to have gone mad for next year. The four who are sharing have decided to book the same for next year after the agent started booking students in to look round.
At least they have some where secure to lock the bikes up 😀

Find a nice place now. Keep it as long as you can. £250 pcm. I wish. About £380 in Southampton. Son1 didn’t get uni accommodation in his first year, so linked up with others on Facebook. They are still together in their final year.

As a rule, you are renting the landlord not the property. Look for professionals with multiple properties and good reputations from agencies.

I rented to students this year, i know a lot of landlords avoid students but my agent met them and assured me they were ok.

Top tips if you are struggling to find anything in a hotspot…

Talk to the letting agents, assure them you are here to study and have good previous references, no smoking and no parties. Also, mine signed an agreement that if i got 1 noise or antisocial bevaviour complaint from neighbours i could deduct 500 gbp crom the deposit.

So far so good, 1st inspection the place is spptless, tenants respectful and just getting on with their student lives.

My son’s signing his contract for next year on Monday – £75 a week plus bills (Exeter) – most he’s seen have been £90-100

@5plusn8, Newcastle.

@docrobster, our lad is currently in Heaton. Not quite as trendy /popular as Jesmond and so much better prices.

Area is fine, too.
Oh, and just done an Airbnb overnight in Heaton with a bloke called ‘Rodney’. £20 per night I kid you not and absolutely perfect. Definitely recommend. Great for visiting

Yes it’s tough, time consuming and expensive

Good luck!

Don’t delay

North East student accommodation per week reasonable ones.

1. Private – Min £80 to £95 or more pppw excluding bills. (Jesmond price while Heaton is slowly catching up)

2. Purposely built private student accommodation – Min £117 to £127 pppw include bills. (they were advertised all over at one point and now with mobile ad using big truck)

London.

3. London – Min £150 pppw to whatever you can afford. My Bro-in-law is selling his kidneys to pay for his children’s Uni education there. 😛

😯

That london number is about right, 1200 pcm for a 2 bed flat is the start point for zone 6. Doable if you look hard and sweeten the deal, mine paid the contract in advance, the norm for students. Student accom is more via the uni, and smaller.

There’s a couple of things worth checking out. See if there’s private halls opening up soon in the area, they’re usually discounted in the first year. Also see if the uni has any affiliated landlords- sometimes that’s more expensive but it’s also more reliable.

Or alternatively get him to become mates with some rich student and get their mum to buy them a house as an investment

Also check if those figures are for a 39 or 52 week year. IME the overall price wasn’t much different but a 39 week contract is about 20% more per week and you have to move out every July/august, pay for delapidations, etc etc at least in a 52 week contract you’re in there until you graduate and can use it over the summer if needs be.

Or alternatively get him to become mates with some rich student and get their mum to buy them a house as an investment

250 a month is a bargain! I paid that for a fairly grotty single room in an attic that I could barely stand up in and couldn’t see out of the window! And Sheffield is allegedly among the cheapest student rents.

Unless they’re seriously rich to the point they don’t charge rent its not worth the agro. At least you can shout at a useless landlord when stuff isn’t done!

Update.
Just had a text from daughter. She has found a place for £75 a week.

Yeppp I hate how early it is but we looked everywhere and this was like the second to last 4 bed house in jesmond under 90

So next year’s deposit of a month’s rent in advance required in the next week…. ho hum
A lot cheaper than the freshers halls she’s in now though.

Edit: @mad bill.
I looked in the map and I don’t know where Heston finishes and Jesmond starts but it looks like the Heaton side of jesmond to me.