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Top tips for finding a house for second year

Ruby Harrison
Ruby Harrison

When looking for a student house, you want it to be spacious, close to Uni (or at least a bus stop), close to shops etc. All very exciting stuff! However, my experience of searching for a student house was rather a shaky one, so I want to give you some tips on how to avoid a messy start to the house-hunting process.

Outside of house

Your shared house in second year will look and feel very different to halls!

Luckily for me, I got along well with my first-year flat mates and we became close friends and still are! However, after only three months at Uni, suddenly you must begin looking for a house with people you haven’t known for very long, which can be a bit daunting.

One issue that I came across was that after we had all paid our deposits, one of the guys we were moving in with decided to bail on us. What made it worse was that another of my housemates had paid his deposit for him, meaning that this they were now out-of-pocket! This could have been resolved by getting together and having a meeting to discuss exactly who wants to live with who. It’s a simple solution to an otherwise unnecessary problem. Luckily, we all chipped in and gave my housemate his money back.

Housemates

Love this lot!

Another thing to think about is the amount of people you are going to live with. Myself and my housemates make up 6 people, and for me that’s great because ‘the more the merrier’. However, Cardiff Met have a great service where they have a list of houses that are ‘met-worthy’ and unfortunately for us, only one house out of all those houses were big enough (this was also due to looking after the Christmas break, which I’ll explain later). Of course, we did manage to find a house and we are comfortable there, but it is wise to be aware that a large house may be harder to find, so GO GO GO!

Bedroom

I’m really enjoying having a space of my own this year!

But wait! I do have a solution for this. As mentioned before, me and my flatmates began looking for our house after Christmas, which is all well and good until you realise a lot of the large and nice houses are gone. There are, of course, a lot of houses left. But, if you want a particularly modern, swanky or big house, you are going to want to start looking and visiting properties around November time. Some of my friends who did this are now living in some very nice student accommodation!

Although I have mentioned some of the obstacles that I faced whilst house-hunting, don’t let that worry you. With it being your first rented house, you can’t expect everything to go completely right. However, if it does, that’s a bonus! I am genuinely excited about where I live and find it a homely and lovely place to work and play.

Good luck on the house hunt and I hope you find a place right for you!

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