Have you just accepted a place in London to study but you are worried about the cost of accommodation? Don’t worry this article is here to help. Today we will be looking at ways you can find cheap student accommodation in London without paying over the odds.
Firstly if you haven’t tried to get into uni halls that would be your best starting place. Uni halls are usually the cheapest places to stay but they are also one of the first places to fill up, so if they are full, do not despair.
It goes without saying, London is huge and the accommodation next to your university is probably going to be expensive. What you will need to do is to take out your map and have a look for areas close by that have affordable accommodation.
If you are going to a central London University to save money you should have a look at what is available a little further out. With that said, University isn’t like school you will have large gaps in your timetables and if you live too far away from your Uni it won’t make sense to travel back and forth in between these gaps.
While the tube is a great way of getting around London it can still take its toll on you if you use it every day.
London rent is one of the highest in the country so splitting the bill in shared accommodation is going to make it easier for you to afford to stay in London. Look on forums, and Facebook groups for others who are going to the same university or are doing the same course as you. That way you can get to know them before university starts and you can get a place together.
Private student accommodation is what the majority of students in London will be using and if you go down this route you should get a list of approved vendors from your university, don’t ignore this as there are many landlords out there that will take advantage of students.
Most student accommodation is rented under a shorthold tenancy which is signed for in 6 or 12-month agreements. When renting private student accommodation you will want to see if any bills are covered. The majority of the time they aren’t.
When it comes to council tax you shouldn’t have to pay it if everyone in the building is a full-time student. If someone is part-time however that means you are eligible for paying it, but you could qualify for a discount.
Student accommodation is often small too so we wouldn’t recommend being too fussy with your room size as you can always rent student storage in London for cheaper than getting a larger room.
We recommend checking with your university first to see if they have any landlords that they can share with you. If you have done that then you can look on places such as:
We would start with uni places as they have accommodation, especially for students which are affordable and are in areas close to universities. If you see a property that you like be sure to call them right away as properties for students in London go very quickly.
On Uniplaces you can sort the listings by price, area and a few other filters. Uniplaces is a great website for finding accommodation and getting it sorted quickly we highly recommend checking them out if you are moving to London as a student.
Gumtree is another place where people advertise their spare rooms for students. However, going on Gumtree is hit and miss when it comes to finding student accommodation as you have no idea who you could potentially be renting a home from.
Spareroom is another great website to find accommodation for cheap while at university. When browsing spareroom keep an eye out for the minimum term dates that you will need to rent the property for along with the security deposit needed.
Spareroom has hundreds of properties available and you can get some bargains there. Once again if you see a property you like, don’t hesitate as properties can go very quickly.
You can look on Rightmove too for student properties, just make sure you visit the right part of their website to search as you will be able to get the correct properties when searching.
The prices on Rightmove are generally higher than the other sites above so check them out before heading over to right move.
You can also look at sites like Studentpad, StudentStay and accommodation for students. All of these sites have some great properties on them from time to time.