2. Private Sector (or "off-campus")

2.1 Sharing a flat/house with friends

This remains the most common option for non-first year students. You select a few of the gullible mugs that you have met whilst serving your halls sentence and take on the responsibility of a flat for a year. You will have to start worrying about things like bills and contracts but at least you won't have to go to a toga party every night. It may not quite equate to civilisation but it certainly will be closer to it than most of the other options outlined here.

As this is the accommodation market I know best, I will be writing more articles on finding and living in a shared flat, so for once I will not add too much detail here. However the essentials are:

Getting a place - Letting agents frequently control a considerable proportion of flats so you will need to contact them (a website like ours can save you a lot of bother with this). You should also visit your accommodation office, and look at college notice boards and local newspapers. (I will look at some local markets in details in future articles)

2.2 Taking a room or rooms in a shared/flat

This is similar to the above except that you have not had the chance to meet the gullible mugs to share with. You will find masses of classifieds offering places within flats, which is probably easier than trying to get a group together. Other ways of finding flat mates include college/uni intranets and notice boards. Once you have found some flat mates but still need a flat see 2.1, otherwise read on.

Getting a place - Notice boards in all sorts of funny places will be advertising rooms (try Union, Intranets and Accommodation offices first).

2.3 Renting a room in a family home

Living with a family suits those that either miss out on halls or can't face the prospect of them. Post-graduates are also quite keen on this option. The primary advantage is that invariably you will be living somewhere comfortable and the cooking (if offered) tends to be better than your alternatives. The disadvantage is that the families timetable will be different to yours. They won't appreciate you coming in at 3.00 a.m and you won't appreciate the screaming kids at 6.00 a.m.

Getting a place - Your accommodation office is, once again, your best starting point. Local newspapers and notice boards are also good.

2.4 Living with your Parents

It's cheap, it's clean (usually), the food is good and your washing gets done. The downside to this option is it is likely to make meeting new people, having booze-ups at home, romantic evenings in, and all that "finding yourself" stuff, just that much more difficult.

Getting a place - volunteering to do the washing up occasionally and periodically bringing up the issue of parental obligations.

This article is courtesy of Tim Barlow. Tim has designed a system to allow students to automatically register property requirements with letting agents as part of a countrywide site specialising in private sector student accommodation.