the common myth that a house for next year has to be immediately sorted out is false. the landlords make it up to create a state of panic amongst students and therefore inflate the prices hoping they will be non the wiser. the rents are sky high and at least 10% more than they should be. dont be afraid to challenge and barter, they are trying to take advantage because we are new to this. we are gettin ripped off

It depends what you want as students...

If you want to live in big groups (of more than five or six) then i found as a student that it was quite important to look at houses early as there are only limited numbers of student houses of that scale.

If you want to live in smaller groups, however, then there are loads of four bedroom student houses around. If that is the case then there is no need to look as early as most students seem to do. In fact, with several of the student houses i lived in we didnt sign contracts until around may.

As a post graduate of Sheffield Hallam University I have been through the house hunting process on a number of occasions and can confirm that the state of panic that has been referred to was not created by the landlords but by the students themselves. When I first started to look for properties in my first year, the accommodation lists from the landlords came out in January / February, which co-in sided with exams. The lists seemed to come out earlier in my subsequent years due to pressure from students trying to get properties sorted earlier as not to clash with exam time.

PS. Rents have gone up but are still well below many major cities.
If you want to be ripped off try Manchester, London, Leeds, Bristol, Durham, Liverpool, The South. I suggest you go to university in Hull.

manchester? i have friends who have got a house in chorlton, an excellent area and are paying 48 p/w inc. bills. on the same note, a mate who's got a nice house in withington, paying 52 p/w... compared to the 60+ mark in sheffield. you're wrong

There are dodgy landlords everywhere...when I was an undergrad at Cardiff my housemates always wanted to look for houses in December, and inevitably most of the landlords said that they were running low on houses already and showed us some really skanky places. We left it a little late one year, I think it was around March/April time, and got a perfectly nice house for 9 of us.

So yeah, use your best judgement, I would say.

manchester? i have friends who have got a house in chorlton, an excellent area and are paying 48 p/w inc. bills. on the same note, a mate who's got a nice house in withington, paying 52 p/w... compared to the 60+ mark in sheffield. you're wrong
Move to Manchester then. ;)

the common myth that a house for next year has to be immediately sorted out is false. the landlords make it up to create a state of panic amongst students and therefore inflate the prices hoping they will be non the wiser. the rents are sky high and at least 10% more than they should be. dont be afraid to challenge and barter, they are trying to take advantage because we are new to this. we are gettin ripped off Yeah but at least you get cheaper buses, cheaper entry into clubs, discounts at pizza hut and dominos, cheaper cd`s/dvd`s if you have a student card etc etc. Hows about the people actually from sheffield? They get nothing. I have no sympathy whatsoever.

Yeah but at least you get cheaper buses, cheaper entry into clubs, discounts at pizza hut and dominos, cheaper cd`s/dvd`s if you have a student card etc etc. Hows about the people actually from sheffield? They get nothing. I have no sympathy whatsoever.

That may be so, but some of these student houses are dire. Absolutely dire. And what has getting cheaper stuff got to do with landlords taking students for a ride anyway?

Nobody is taking anybody for a ride. If it is dire, just say no and go live elsewhere. I don't recall seeing landlords rounding up students and forcing them to hand over their rent money.

No, but the scare tactics they use are pretty effective- "we've only got this house left, no other houses on our books, if you don't rent this house you'll have nowhere to live" etc.

I lived in a pretty bad place in my second year, just due to being (stupidly, I admit) taken in by this sort of a landlord. To my inexperienced eyes, the house we rented was lovely- and the best one we saw, no flies on this guy. Landlords- not all, I admit, but there are a few bad bananas in the bunch- know how to play students, and I think that's what the thread starter was getting at. Students need to realise that they CAN say no and go live elsewhere, and that they do have rights when it comes to paying rent.

With the massive building programs in Sheffield at the moment, I find it impossible to believe that a student couldn't find somewhere decent to live.

Is it the Landlords fault that you were stupid? (your words)

Nope, not the landlords fault at all. Mine. I wasn't blaming him for me being naive. I was just making a point.

I suggest you go to university in Hull.
If you're after cheap student housing, that's a very good suggestion.

I've just come from there and getting a cheap, decent place for under 40 quid and 20seconds walk from the union bar isn't impossible!

manchester? i have friends who have got a house in chorlton, an excellent area and are paying 48 p/w inc. bills. on the same note, a mate who's got a nice house in withington, paying 52 p/w... compared to the 60+ mark in sheffield. you're wrong

52p/w in withington is not normal. More typical is 60 - 70 pounds per week. Of course you can get lucky and get something cheaper, but mostly withington is a lot more expensive than sheffield. My flat in withingon was half the size of the one I have in crookes and costs the same rent.