How to choose student accommodation

Choosing a room comes down to five things that pull against each other: room type, distance to your department, weekly budget, tenancy length, and what is included in the rent. Improving one usually costs you another, so decide which two you care about most before you start comparing.

Room type sets the floor on price. A studio is fully private and the most expensive. An en-suite room gives you a private bedroom and bathroom in a cluster flat with a shared kitchen, and is usually the best value. A shared apartment shares the bathroom too, and is the cheapest.

Distance is the one students underestimate. A room one transit stop further out can save a noticeable amount per week, but a 40 minute each-way commute costs you roughly 90 minutes a day across a term. Work out what that is worth to you before you take the cheaper room.

Tenancy length is where the real money is. Standard academic contracts run 43 to 51 weeks. If your course finishes in June, a 51 week contract means paying for an empty room over the summer. Some operators offer 44 week semester contracts, and a few offer short stays.

Purpose-built student accommodation, usually shortened to PBSA, is the modern block built specifically for students. On-site management, secure entry, a gym, study rooms and social space are typical, and bills, WiFi and contents insurance are almost always in the weekly rate. It is the most predictable option and the easiest to book from abroad.

A studio is a self-contained flat: your own bedroom, bathroom and kitchenette. It suits postgraduates, couples, and anyone who needs quiet to work. It is the most expensive per week and the most isolating if you are arriving somewhere you know nobody.

An en-suite room in a cluster flat is a private bedroom and bathroom, with a kitchen shared between roughly three to eight people. It is the most common choice for first-year international students because it balances privacy against meeting people, and it is usually the best value per week.

A shared apartment shares the kitchen and the bathroom. It is the cheapest, and it works best if you already know who you are living with or you are comfortable in a busier household.

University halls are a fifth option worth checking directly with your institution. They are often cheaper than private PBSA and allocated by the university rather than booked online, so the application timeline is different and usually earlier.

Bills included normally means electricity, water, heating, WiFi and contents insurance in one weekly figure. It is the main reason PBSA is easier to budget for than a private flat, where a cold winter can move your monthly costs by a lot.

Check three things that are commonly excluded even when a listing says all inclusive: a fair use cap on electricity, whether contents insurance covers your laptop at its real value, and whether communal cleaning covers your own room or only shared areas.

Look for the deposit terms and what happens to them. In the UK a deposit on an assured shorthold tenancy must be protected in a government-backed scheme. PBSA contracts are often licences rather than tenancies, which are not covered in the same way, so read what the operator says about protecting and returning it.

For a September start, the widest choice is between January and April, and most rooms are taken by August. Booking early gets you the choice of floor, aspect and room type rather than whatever is left. Booking late sometimes gets you a discount on unsold stock, but only if you can accept the room you are given.

For a January intake, two to three months ahead is usually enough. Summer stays can often be booked a few weeks out.

If your offer is conditional, check what happens if your results or your visa do not come through. Many operators will release you from the contract on proof of a rejection, but the terms vary and you want that in writing before you pay.

Because most purpose-built accommodation puts utilities, WiFi and contents insurance into the weekly rate, rent is close to your whole fixed cost and everything else is lifestyle. That makes a student budget unusually easy to model: take the weekly rent, add groceries, transport, phone and social spending, and you have it.

Three things move the number more than anything else. Cooking at home rather than eating out is the largest single lever for most students. A monthly or termly transit pass almost always beats paying per journey. And a student discount card, NUS Totum in the UK and its equivalents elsewhere, pays for itself within a few weeks.

If the budget is tight, look at shared apartments before studios, and at properties one transit stop further out. The weekly saving on rent usually outweighs the extra commute, and it is the change that frees up the most money for the least compromise.

Ask about a guarantor before you fall for a room. Many operators want a guarantor based in the country you are studying in. Where you cannot provide one, the usual alternatives are an international guarantor service or paying a larger share of the rent up front.

Plan the first 48 hours. Check whether the building offers pre-arrival luggage storage or an early check-in, whether reception is staffed when your flight lands, and what you do if you arrive outside those hours. This is the single most common thing students forget.

Look at the area for the things that make somewhere feel liveable rather than just convenient: a supermarket that stocks food you recognise, places of worship if that matters to you, and cultural or community centres. First term is easier when life outside campus works.

Check the working hours your visa allows before you accept any part-time job, and confirm what proof of address you need to open a bank account, since many banks want a letter from your university or your accommodation provider.

When you are weighing up neighbourhoods, weight the things that make somewhere liveable rather than only the commute: grocery shops that stock food you actually cook with, cultural centres, and places of worship if that matters to you. Students who feel at home outside campus have a much easier first year than students who only have a short walk to lectures.

Convert everything to the same unit. Operators quote weekly in some countries and monthly in others, and a 51 week contract at a lower weekly rate can cost more in total than a 44 week contract at a higher one. Compare the total contract cost, not the headline.

Treat the photographs as marketing. A room photographed with a wide lens from the doorway is standard practice. The floor area in square metres, where it is published, tells you more than any picture.

Ask the operator two specific questions: what the room looks out onto, and what is directly above, below and beside it. A cheap room over a plant room or beside a lift is cheap for a reason, and neither shows in a listing.

If you cannot view in person, ask for a video call walkthrough of the actual room rather than the show room. Most operators will do this and the ones that refuse have told you something.

Two things derail student bookings more than anything else: a visa refusal and a university offer that does not convert. Both are common enough that you should know the answer before you pay a deposit, not after.

Bookings made through MoJO Housing are covered by our No Visa No Pay guarantee. If your student visa is refused and you can share the refusal letter, you get a full refund of the booking, provided it was made before your intake begins.

The same applies to your offer. Many students book while still holding a conditional offer, which is normal. If the offer is withdrawn and you cannot start the course, our No University No Pay guarantee covers the booking: send us the rejection letter and we will process the refund.

If you are booking anywhere else, ask for the equivalent in writing. An operator that will not put its cancellation terms in an email is telling you what those terms are worth.