Humanity Hallows Issue 4 Out Now!
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By Georgia Landi

Choosing a house to live in with the friends you’ve made at uni can often be difficult. In your first year, it’s different. You are quite literally shoved into a flat with people you don’t know. If we compare this to your second or third year, you get to choose yourself who you live with.

You need to consider a lot of things before picking somewhere to live:

Get to know potential housemates

If you have a group of friends, from either your flat or your course, make sure you get to know them before moving in. If you’re discussing looking at houses a month in, the chances are you don’t know them well enough so little into the year. They may be great but better to be safe than sorry!! Make sure you properly get to know the people before choosing to live with them for a year, because it is a long time!

Choose your area carefully

A massive thing you need to take into consideration is the area. Relating it to a personal situation here, we chose to live outside of the ever-so-popular Fallowfield in Manchester, as we thought it would be nice to live just outside the hussle and bussle non-stop party town. We were wrong. The flat we live in is lovely inside, spacious and has a nice interior, however the area is another story. We live in Levenshulme, a five minute drive from Fallowfield. We live on a road which has about five or six student houses on it, but also has a lot of families living on it. We always say our road is the nice part of Levenshulme. Basically it’s not a great area in terms of crime, etc. And shortly after moving in, we decided that in third year we would live in Fallowfield.

So, when looking for houses make sure you definitely check out the area. Go with the main student area, its the most popular one for a reason…You can check by asking the landlord (who let’s face it, is always going to sugar coat it because he or she wants you to rent it), and if there’s any students inside the house when you view it, ask them. Ask around at uni, because by chance someone may know something about the area. Check online, and can even ask student reps, ambassadors or peer mentors.

Check travel arrangements

Make sure you check bus routes, train routes, walking routes and bike routes to make sure you can easily get to uni. My bus is really unreliable, something I didn’t know before, so a lot of the time I drive to Withington to park and then get on the Magic Bus which comes literally every minute. I’ll be able to use this bus when I move into my third-year house, YAAS!

How many people do you want to share with?

Consider how many people you want to live with; do you want to live with more or fewer people? Take into consideration that if you live with fewer people, you’ll be more likely to be alone in the house a lot. Whereas if you live with more, it’s going to be more crowded, more likely that people will always be in, possible risk of too much noise when studying…? Sounds a lot to consider but it should be done before picking somewhere!

Another personal experience, living with three others can mean a quiet house if people are at uni or work, and, also, not everyone wants to be in the kitchen 24/7. Next year I’m living with five others meaning that someone will be in the house the majority of the time, which is always a nice thought to come home to.

Be wary of unofficial landlords

Make sure your landlord isn’t dodgy! We went through an official site and found our landlord company, who are fantastic! Never go about it dodgily because otherwise you could find yourself in a tricky situation with regard to deposits, damages in the house etc.

Don’t forget bills

Consider getting bills included. It’s so easy, no hassle about if someone’s using the electric more than another. And stops one person having to sort all the bills out for everyone.

My advice to you: Make sure you really think into choosing your house to live in, as a year is such a long time to have to live in it if you don’t like it.