Where To Choose My Student House
So, you’ve made the decision that you would prefer to get yourself a
student house rather than living on campus. But where do you start? There are so many things to take into consideration, and you’re feeling overwhelmed. Well, my dear friend, the trick is to take it one step at a time. And the first of those steps, is to figure out WHERE you want your student accommodation to be.
It’s important to realise straight away that location is paramount when searching for student housing.
Proximity to University/Campus
The most important thing is making sure that your choice of student housing is either close to your university campus, or it’s within easy reach by public transport such as a bus, train, tube or even bicycle if you prefer. Even if you have a car and intend on driving, it is important to remember that your car could break down or there might be issues with roads during cold weather, so you need to be able to reach campus in those events.
Local Amenities
It’s also important to ensure that you’re near to local amenities. The most important of these should be a shop or supermarket to be able to stock up on essentials each week. It can be handy to be near to a 24 hour supermarket or garage too, as if you need something late at night you can get your hands on it.
Something else that can be handy here is being near to takeaways and hot food, as after a long day at uni or a night ahead of studying, you might want some easy grub to keep you going. This is also great if you’re heading home after a night out and want a greasy kebab!
Social Life
As a student, naturally you’ll be a social butterfly and will always want to be out socialising and drinking. That’s why it’s a good idea to make sure that you’re near to the town where you can easily reach pubs, clubs and restaurants by walking or a short bus ride. This can avoid the temptation to drink drive – NEVER do this!
What To Avoid
It can be handy to do a little research on an area that you are keen on to see if there is any adverse activity in the area. Many larger towns and cities have red light areas, and this is certainly a place to avoid. It can help to check out the crime levels in different areas of town too, as you want to avoid a run in with drug addicts in your way home or burglaries at your house.
Importantly, you should make sure that before you agree to living in a place that you trace the steps of where you’d need to walk to get to vital places, like supermarkets, town and your uni. Make sure that you can get to where you need to go (or get home) without walking anywhere dangerous such as long dark alleyways late at night.
