Looking for college accommodation? How do you find the right place? Wandering around strange housing estates with a copy of the local paper in your hand isn’t really much fun. Take the pain out of finding accommodation by checking out what’s on offer on MyHome.ie. You can search by college, by area or by accommodation type. From accommodation sharing to house and apartment rentals, MyHome.ie has 1000’s of rental properties to help you find your home from home. You can sign up to our alerts: tell us where you want to live and what you need and let MyHome.ie do the rest. We also have advice on the different types of student accommodation... so read on to see what will suit you best.
The Choices
There are 3 main types of student accommodation for those moving away to college; digs, college res and renting your own place. There are no hard and fast rules for what’s best and it really comes down to personal circumstances. Often first year students opt for digs or college res as a way acclimatising to college life and there is something to be said for that. However if you know some people who are sharing a nice house in a good location for reasonable rent it’s definitely worth checking it out.
Digs
Digs are ideal for first year students who want to ease into their new life away from home or for students who don’t’ want the hassle of cooking and cleaning and simply like their home comforts. The two critical factors with digs is the soundness of the landlady or landlord - generally the former - and the quality of the accommodation. If the landlady cooks like your mum, doesn’t mind what hours – or condition - you come in at and the house is located close to college you’re over half way there. Other factors to consider;
- Do you have your own room or are you sharing?
- Are there other students?
- Will you be able to study there?
- Do you have broadband access?
- Can you stay there at weekends?
- Can you stay there during the day?
- What are the bathroom/shower facilities like?
- Are their laundry facilities? TV? etc etc.
Because breakfast and evening meals are included, digs don’t come cheap, but hey, if you find a landlady with a heart of gold, she’s probably worth it. You can get details on approved digs through the college accommodation office. Alternatively get your mother on the case!
College Res
When looking for a house or apartment to rent or buy the mantra is often location, location, location. Ironically this is where college residences score highly as most of them are in, or adjacent to college campuses. This means those staying there get to lie in, in the mornings while other students are struggling with gale force winds, lashing rain, punctures and buses that fail to show. Many residences have been built in recent years and as a result are modern and well furnished. Staying in a residence puts you at the centre of college life with easy access to everything the college has to offer from bars to gyms and gigs to plays. Not to forget the library of course!
Residences are also generally safe and well maintained. Some students spend all their college life in residences and have a blast especially if they make a lot of friends. The only downsides are that it can be a little like living in a ‘college bubble’ and you don’t get to fully experience what life in that city/town is like. Also if you don’t connect with the people you are living/sharing with it can become claustrophobic while security or admin staff can sometimes be tiresome. Because of the added convenience of residences they do tend to be more expensive than private accommodation. Before you make the leap consider;
- Who are you sharing with?
- Will you be able to study there?
- How much will it cost?
Home, sweet home
For many students independent living is what student life is all about and the best way to achieve that is to rent your own place. However care needs to be exercised as a hasty decision on a dark wet evening in September can sometimes have long term consequences. If you can’t look forward to going back to your gaff after a day at college, you are in for a miserable and lonely existence. Getting a reasonably priced, well equipped apartment or house close to college and the town centre is what it’s all about, but lots of other students are out there with the same objective so you need to begin your search as quickly as possible. As mentioned above MyHome.ie has thousands of properties available for rent and allows you to conduct detailed searches and price comparisons online. A detailed check list is provided below to help you make a thorough assessment of potential properties. But here are a few more general ones for starters?
- Apartment or house?
- How many people do you want to/are you willing to share with?
- Will they make good housemates?
- Does house have broadband?
- Do you have a key to your own room?
- How close is the property to college?
- Is property well equipped? Washing machines, dryer, cable TV, dishwasher etc
- Is it a safe area/what are the neighbours like?
- What’s the landlord/landlady like?
