Student accommodation will always be expensive for your child when they go to university, which is why every student takes out a massive maintenance loan to try and cover the costs. Even then, in some parts of the country, it’s not enough, and you have to pitch in to help them. You’re more than happy to do this – getting a university degree is a great investment in their personal development, and you want to support that – but you also can’t afford to blow so much money on accommodation alone.
The main goal is to help your child reduce the amount of debt they’re in when they exit university, so here are some of the best ways to save money on accommodation:
Book as early as you can
No matter what type of student accommodation you’re going for, booking early will help you save a lot of money. Universities and private accommodation providers will always release their options well in advance of the term start date. You want to book the moment they publish their choices, as this normally means you can lock in the best price. What tends to happen is that the most affordable options go extremely quickly, so if you book too late, you end up with expensive choices and pay more than you’d otherwise like to.
This is true for both university halls and privately owned purpose-built student accommodation.
Try to look for group bookings
If your child is preparing for their first year of university and they’re going to the same uni as a large group of their school friends, then this is the perfect opportunity to look for group bookings from privately owned student accommodation providers. As you’ll see on Host, group bookings usually come with special discounts from the provider – either as money taken off the weekly price or given back to the students through vouchers/cashback. Your child can save over £1,000 by doing this, and all they need to do is book as a group.
Doing this for the first year isn’t always easy, but once your child establishes a friend group at university, they should encourage their buddies to book as a group at the same accommodation place. It can literally save money, so everyone should be happy about it.
Make a location sacrifice
While it’s not smart to book student accommodation in a completely different city that’s over an hour away from the university, sometimes a location sacrifice is a top way to save money. The important point for this is that your child should still be able to make it to uni without any trouble. Maybe there’s a great bus link that takes them straight to the campus – or perhaps they can cycle or walk there in under 30 minutes.
Much like when buying or renting a home, picking a location that’s slightly out of the way unlocks massive savings. Student accommodation close to uni campuses will always be the most expensive because it’s convenient, but you could genuinely find one that’s a few hundred quid cheaper per week 30 minutes down the road.
Aim for all-inclusive bills
One of the unique benefits of student accommodation is that it often gives you the chance to include all of the utility bills in the overall weekly rent. Student accommodation providers do this because it’s much easier than having to manage hundreds of separate utility bills and deal with people picking different providers all the time, etc.
From the student’s perspective, it is almost always cheaper to pay for an all-inclusive accommodation property than it is to deal with the utility bills separately. Why? Because the fact of the matter is that most students will use more energy than what they pay for in an all-inclusive contract. So, the weekly rent might look a lot cheaper when it’s not an all-inclusive bill, but you end up racking up massive utility bills every month that counter this. Go all-inclusive; it’s the best choice for saving money.
Consider staying at home
Ultimately, the best way to save money when finding student accommodation is by avoiding it completely. If your child stays at home, they don’t have to pay any additional rent and can pretty much get away without a maintenance loan. To put this into context, the average student maintenance loan is £7,678 per year – which is £23,034 for a typical three-year course. By staying at home, your child can be nearly £25,000 better off.
Of course, staying at home comes with a lot of downsides for everyone – and it’s also just not suitable if you don’t live near your child’s chosen university. Those who are near may want to consider staying at home for the first year before moving to student accommodation in the second, just to save that seven grand.
The underlying point of this guide is that you can help your child save money on student accommodation, but it will still cost them. With the right moves – and by searching way in advance – you can easily help them save thousands per year.
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