Cardiff Property and Accommodation, UK

Searching for a student accommodation when you've just got to college or university can be frightening. Many leasing mediators are free roughly in December/January. In realism there should be no rush - there will still be houses in March - but of course the best properties do go first so while you shouldn't rush do try and be prompt - if not you will get a house but it won't be as nice. Where to find for an accommodation though? Online resources are rising progressively trendier to find student property and accommodation. The major reward is that to find an accommodation are much quicker than walking around to letting agents. In actuality online services lean to still be quite imperfect, with only a few student letting agents/landlords in each city. One service which is of great use is www.theumbrellahomes.co.uk. The resource is quite useful because it actually seems to stand for the vast majority of student houses or accommodation available in the cities it is in. College Accommodation Services Your college accommodation service may be well located to help you find a house - but the quality of these services does vary greatly between Colleges. Keep in mind that Accommodation Services vary dramatically. Some have their own accommodation they manage on and off campus and may try and push you into this, others promote landlords through them, and/or others have genuine advice centers. Unfortunately some colleges see the accommodation service as a profit-focused department and thus do not run the service to provide ‘impartial’ advice but to try and let as much college managed accommodation as possible. Many universities also run 'housing days', typically in the first term of the year, providing advice on housing. At many housing days the known organizations are joined by a few commercial letting agents - and so you can also begin your housing search at these days. What to do when if you found a potential accommodation? Once you've accumulate a list of potential houses - whether from online, or some other method - you need to contact the letting agent/landlord to arrange a viewing. In most cases they will take you on a viewing, but in some cases you may just be told to make your own way to the property. At this stage, the method of search you picked above can really start to make a difference. Decent online listings will often have internal pictures of the property, so you can get a good idea of the property before you go to view it. That way you can ensure the properties you view you can seriously consider. On the other hand, walking around 10 properties could take you 2-3 days! Either way, when you go to visit a house make sure to ask all the right questions and look for the right problems and features.