STUDENT HOUSE HUNTING: MY ADVICE

This September I started my second year of university. This meant that I no longer call halls of residence my home from home. I now lived in a shared student house with eight housemates. This is the time of year when students have begun looking for houses for next year. While looking for a house may seem like some real grown up fun, it can be difficult and stressful. Student houses can be grim at times and negotiating electric bills and weekly rent isn’t the party it sounds. While I am not partaking in the wild fun that is student house hunting, as next year I will be on a work placement, I decided to write down a few pointers that I thought might be helpful. I am not an expert; these snippets of advice have come from personal experience and things that have come up when talking to friends about student house hunting.

Be sure of your future housemates

Whenever I’ve watched or read advice to Fresher’s, one of the first points is to not get pressured in to signing for a house before you really know the people you’re living with. It’s a difficult balancing act for sure but you want to be living in a happy environment for the next year. With more work and pressure, second year is a completely different ball game to the year of a fresher. Will that constant mess in the kitchen be as hilariously charming a month in to second year?

If you can, talk to the current tenants

This is a piece of advice I wish I had considered this time last year. When you’re viewing a student house it’s likely that some of the current tenants will be around. Ask them what it’s like to live there, things like broadband capability and efficiency of the heating are things you can get an unbiased and honest opinion of. 

Check crime levels

This one is pretty self-explanatory. If you’ve moved to a new city for university, after 2 months it’s unlikely that you’ve gained local knowledge about the reputations of student housing areas. Unfortunately some letting agents and landlords will take advantage of this and not mention high crime levels while they charge per room for a house. You can quickly check crime statistics by postcode here: http://www.crime-statistics.co.uk

Be Decisive

Getting a good student house is competitive, especially if you’re in a city with more than one university. Once you’ve found a house you’re confident about, stake your claim. You don’t have to have all the fine details sorted overnight but don’t make the mistake that my housemates and I made of deciding the house we saw a fortnight ago was the one we wanted to be told that another group had signed for it.

Bins are important

Ah, the glamour of adult life… I live with eight people, within a few weeks of living in our new home we realised that the amount of rubbish nine people make was too much for the wheelie bins we were allocated by the council. After months of emails and phone calls to the local council we have finally solved the seemingly simple problem. You may be thinking that this is not a significant issue but when you’re living with a hallway of overflow rubbish bags, it’s significant. This is especially important, if like me, you are living with more than five or so people. Look out for any signs that there is inadequate bin space and if you can ask the current tenants about it. (See above)

Happy Hunting!