How I Chose My Student Accommodation

• Author: Freya Pulfer, Msc Pharmacy

Hi I’m Freya, a fourth year student studying towards a Masters in Pharmacy. I wanted to share my story of renting as a student for the last 3 years in Brighton. This blog outlines how I chose my student house, and what I learned from that experience. Hopefully, this will help any other students currently trying to sort out their accommodation for next year. When looking for my first student house, I found a group of 7 other girls I wanted to live with. Once we had our group, then we did house viewings over January and February. I was so excited to be living with my friends. But naturally, I did have some apprehension about leaving the comfort and security that university halls provided.

My first steps in choosing accommodation

To find houses to view we searched through student lettings on Rightmove and Brand Vaughan for students. After comparing prices and areas, we decided that Coldean was cheaper but too far from town. We also came to the conclusion that places closer to town like Elm Grove was too expensive. In the end, we decided on finding accommodation in the Moulsecoomb area, near campus. We then had to decide between either getting 2 houses of 4 people or 1 house of 8. We chose the 1 house of 8 in the end. There were less options for 8 but I’m glad that we chose to be together.

What mattered most to me

We had a few major considerations when choosing our house. First was location, as my group was split between Falmer and Moulsecoomb campus, we were looking for somewhere in between. Next was the size of bedrooms. We all wanted similar-sized bedrooms with double beds. It can be tricky trying to divide rent unequally, so having similar bedrooms makes that easier. We also weren’t bothered about having en-suites. We had a budget of around £150 a week. However, we didn’t factor in the house bills, so don’t forget to do that when searching! Because in the end we probably paid closer to £170. Lastly, we made sure there was a bus stop nearby that would take us directly to town via Moulsecoomb campus.

Viewing or exploring Brighton accommodation

We viewed 5 properties before we found the one we signed on to. I would recommend going to the house viewings yourself if you can. It is important that you are happy with the space. You need to see yourself being comfortable there, as you will be living there for a whole year. It’s an expensive commitment so you need to be sure. During the viewings, the previous tenants will still be living there. You need to try and imagine the space without their possessions and mess.

The main things to check in the student accommodation when you are viewing are:

• All the plumbing is working (Don’t be shy to test the taps or ask questions!)
• The bathrooms either have windows or good extraction and for no signs of mold and damp.
• The condition of the property and essential features such as the oven.
• Ask the landlord or letting agent what their approach is to any maintenance if something were to stop working.

We made our final choice when we found a house that met our above criteria. We were happy with the location, there was a bus stop right outside. Only 1 out of the 8 rooms was a bit smaller than the others. It had 2 bathrooms, and a toilet, and it was within our budget.

What I wish I’d known earlier

When we moved in, we realised we had made a lot of assumptions. One being that there would be kitchen bins, a hoover, a toaster and that the bedrooms would have locks on. All of these turned out to be incorrect! I would recommend checking the household items itinerary so see what’s included before you move in. We ended up buying a bin from ASDA and a Henry Hoover from Facebook Marketplace. 

Also, I think it’s important to have a kitchen that you would want to spend time in, unexpectedly, that’s the place my friends and I spent the most time together.

Three top tips for choosing uni accommodation as a student

My main 3 tips when choosing a house would be:

• Make sure you’re comfortable with every person you will be living with
• Keep looking for a house until you know you have found the right one
• Enjoy every minute of it, even the ones that may be a bit stressful.

 What I’d do differently next time

If I were choosing student accommodation again, I wouldn’t worry about living in a ‘student area’ as really this applies to most of Brighton anyways. I would think about the location more practically, my house was a 25 minute walk from campus but was on the top of a very long and steep hill which also the night bus would drop us at the bottom of.

How to handle rent payments

When you’re in the house share and split the rent, you can use a bank where you can create pots. This helps to clearly track payments. We started a new Monzo account specifically for the rent. This avoided one person being responsible for the money coming out of their main account. It meant that if anyone was late to pay no one else would be out of pocket for it, and helped us track the finances better. You can also each add money into the pots equally, to purchase shared items for the house like washing up liquid and bin bags.

Final advice

My final piece of advice is to not compromise too much, it’s good to establish absolute deal breakers for you personally and stick to them! This way you’ll end up happy with your decision and not let the stress of choosing accommodation cloud your judgement.

Despite all the recommendations and things I would change for next year, I wouldn’t have changed this year for anything. It may not have been a perfect house because of budgets and the limitation of needing 8 bedrooms, but the people made it more than perfect!

Even though finding a house can seem daunting, it is so worth it. I didn’t anticipate how much fun it would be to be surrounded by my friends all the time, sharing experiences, having people there for you, meeting new people and always being busy if you choose to be.

Good luck on the house hunting, you will absolutely love student living in Brighton!