Sign for a house by the end of the week or you’ll be homeless

York students are already going insane about finding a house for next year.

Reality check. It’s NOVEMBER. Can you all just calm down please.

Here are some things to think about surrounding this whole house debacle.

Friends

First years, you’ve been here for seven weeks and spent a lot of your time drunk. And are probably still being overly nice so you don’t get labelled as a bitch too early in the year.

The person who held your hair back that first night of freshers is not your bff. Nor is the guy you borrow a pen off every week in lectures.

No doubt your flatmates are slowly starting to piss you off with their lack of hygiene, using your stuff without asking, or waking you up at 5am when they’ve staggered back from Willow.

Friendships are bound to change in this first term. Don’t decide for definite who you’re going to live with next year too soon.

A year is a long time to put up with someone who really just gets on your tits.

 

You won’t be homeless

You’ll be getting emails from your colleges saying there’s an excess of student housing in York.

This is true.

Yes, some houses are utter shitholes. But they’re bound to be better than some of the blocks in Derwent.

Location

Living on campus means you’re always a five minute walk from everywhere.

Take this for granted while you can.

There’s this place called Tang Hall (ask your STYCs). Some students have claimed their walk to uni can take 45 minutes.

Now add the Yorkshire weather of rain and cold and really consider that decision.

Price

A lot of students can’t afford to pay top dollar for a house. But don’t assume because it’s a 10 minute walk from uni it’s going to be expensive.

Do your research wisely, there are relatively cheap houses located very close to the uni.

Always worth trying to haggle prices. What have you got to lose? Just don’t be unreasonable and sound like a dick.

Bills

You’ve all had the luxury of bills being included in your rent. For many, this means whacking the heating on full blast whenever you’re home. Perhaps even with the window open.

This luxury will not continue in year two. The battle of when to turn the heating on will drive you insane. Consider how much bills are going to cost on top of your weekly rent.

Landlords

All you manic freshers will have discovered the estate agent on campus with all the pictures of houses which are so tastefully blu-tacked onto the wall.

But there are other estate agents and private landlords you can (and should) consider.

At the end of the day, you will hear the lies like “oh I’ve got another five groups coming to look at the house, and one might sign this afternoon.”

This is utter bullshit. It could be true, but don’t believe everything you hear.

Another popular lie is “this house stays really warm in winter”. Really warm does not mean tropical temperatures. If anything it means you’ll only need to wear two jumpers instead of three.

Think of the second and third years

No doubt second and third years have already received emails from their landlords asking if they’re carrying on their tenancy next year.

They themselves probably don’t know what they’re doing next year.

They do not need fresh-faced first years turning up at their houses, while they’re probably hungover, or drastically finishing off assignments.

Especially when freshers will inevitably just walk into their bedroom, look around, and walk out in silence.

Campus is an option

Living on campus again in second year does not mean you haven’t made friends.

People choose to remain on campus for all kind of reasons. It’s safe. Bills are included. It’s close to lectures. Catering is an option. It’s easy.

If people say you’re staying on campus because you’re a loner, just tell them to think of you getting up at half 8 for your 9am instead of 7:30am like they will be.

Ask questions

When going through estate agents you’re likely to be shown round houses by a person who only knows what’s on his piece of paper.

If tenants are in ask them questions. They won’t bite. They’re the ones who will tell you the truth like “there’s mould everywhere” or “the landlord is shit and took three weeks to fix the oven”.

Worried you’ll have no-one to live with?

It’s perfectly normal to not know who you’re going to live with next year. The colleges organise get togethers for students struggling to find housemates.

There are also plenty of Facebook groups for students in this situation. You’re not alone.