Finding accommodation

Hello! I will be moving to London this September to start grad school. I am looking for my own accommodation in London, but it is proving to be difficult with not being in London. Go figure, ha. I am curious as to what other students are doing/have done for their living situations. My school has student housing, but it's way more than I would want to spend per week. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I am in the same position as you. DH is going to grad school, I'm transfering to London. I'd be very curious to know this as well! I've had no luck thus far with gumtree and other similar ones. I've tried "rightmove" but none of the agents get back to me!

  Please respond to this one wise people!

I'm going through the same thing.  We are arriving in the UK on the 13th September, and I booked a cheap B&B for 14 nights, so I'm hoping that it doesn't take us longer than two weeks to get a place nailed down.

Rightmove has been really invaluable to me in the way of getting ideas on prices, areas, etc.  It also has a really cool area search function, if you're trying to stay near the school, you can draw the area on the map and search in a specific area.  I have emailed a couple different agents through rightmove and did receive responses back within a couple days, but I was just asking basic questions.

What I plan to do about a week before we leave is to actually start emailing the agents of places that we like to set up appointments to view places when we arrive. 

It all depends. Some of the ads are for properties that aren't available for a while that they are hoping to let, whereas others will be available immediately. If you can't make a short trip to London prior to moving here, then that generally rules out the first set of properties, meaning you'll need to wait to get here to find one that says it's available immediately. Some people I know booked a couple of weeks in a hostel or B&B during their search. There's really not much else you can do, unfortunately, unless you're going to take some student accommodation.

If you're only looking for a room in a shared flat, you can also try www.spareroom.co.uk or http://www.flatshare.com/. Some of these may offer flexible/temporary accommodation as well if you need somewhere for a few weeks before moving into a more permanent place.

What I plan to do about a week before we leave is to actually start emailing the agents of places that we like to set up appointments to view places when we arrive. 

Rightmove, primelocation and findaproperty are great for getting an idea of prices and areas as you said, but agents don't tend to update them and the listings are often stale.  I would look at the agent's websites for more up to date listings and call a couple of agents a few days before you arrive, give them your parameters and hope that they can set up some appointments for you when you arrive.

You may want to check university message boards. Sheffield Uni had one and people were always looking for housemates/offering flats/houses on it. A very valuable resourse if your school offers. Also, sometimes at the uniopn, they have a housing office that may be helpful.

University housing was also too expensive for me. Spareroom was great for me. I upgraded to the early bird option and found a flat within two days. You can pause the subscription if you purchase the monthly one and then re-activate it one more time within a year if need be.

My experience: I've only been here a week, but I booked a hotel for three days just so I had somewhere to go right when I got in. I found a flat but can't move in until the 29th. I couldn't find anywhere to stay and the hotel is expensive, but I extended my stay at the hotel for a few days until I could set something else up. I'm going to stay in Uni summer accommodation for the next 10 days because I wanted a room that I could lock in a place that had security, and I didn't trust a hostel. Mind you, I have no experience with hostels; this is ALL new to me- I've never been to Europe before. It's not terribly expensive; about the same as a hostel would be. I wish I had investigated this option ahead of time.

So, I've ended up spending about as much as 2-3 months of how much my rent is going to cost on two weeks of staying here (most of that is the hotel cost) due to my naivety of where to stay and poor planning. But like you pointed out, I had to be here to see the flats! No one would even respond to my enquiries until I could say "can we meet next weekend for a viewing?" because my arrival was too far off and they rented the flats out so quickly.

Jillianbean's plan of setting up something cheap for a bit right when you arrive is great, and contacting potential flats a few days or a week before you arrive is probably the way to go. Best of luck!!

So, I've ended up spending about as much as 2-3 months of how much my rent is going to cost on two weeks of staying here (most of that is the hotel cost)

I was VERY worried about this when I was trying to figure out what we were going to do when we arrive.  The B&B I booked is VERY inexpensive (for me and my partner, it's costing under $800 for 14 nights); it's not hotel accomodation, but it has a kitchen and laundry that we can use, and the proprietor has been really good about responding to my emails, so I'm hoping for the best.

Thanks for all the responses everyone. It looks might I just have to buckle down and stay somewhere temporarily when I arrive in London. Good luck to those looking for accommodation as well!

I was VERY worried about this when I was trying to figure out what we were going to do when we arrive.  The B&B I booked is VERY inexpensive (for me and my partner, it's costing under $800 for 14 nights); it's not hotel accomodation, but it has a kitchen and laundry that we can use, and the proprietor has been really good about responding to my emails, so I'm hoping for the best.

Well done! I spent nearly that much in pounds! You're really well prepared. The best I can do now is warn others! I just wish I were a more seasoned traveller. But you (I) learn from mistakes and successes!

Is anyone else running into the issue of only finding agents/agencies and those agencies requiring a massive 3-6 months of rent UP FRONT? This is ridiculous! What student has that much money up front? They won't even give us the two weeks we need before we get our first loan check or we could pay four months up front! I really wanted to live with my friend that is moving out there at the same time with me (I'm going to UCL, she LSE), but it's looking more and more like we might have to separate because I don't have that kind of money! I've always stayed at the same place in Camden Town, but my usual room isn't available this time, and plus I still really want to live with my friend.

How reasonable is it to stay at a hostel for a few weeks and find a place in those weeks, while physically in London to look at places? And how reasonable is it to find a place that doesn't require so much up front, or maybe doesn't require all the formal documentation of a rental agreement (the place I've always stayed is a huge nice townhouse that is right next to Amy Winehouse's flat, or was =/... and I've always just paid monthly with them. I can come up with 4 months up front, but not till I get my first check, which is 2 weeks in.

Any ideas?

I am in the same position as you. DH is going to grad school, I'm transfering to London. I'd be very curious to know this as well! I've had no luck thus far with gumtree and other similar ones. I've tried "rightmove" but none of the agents get back to me!

  Please respond to this one wise people!

Gibby are you moving to London? We should totally meet up!

Gibby are you moving to London? We should totally meet up!

Yeah I am!  Finally. we've wanted to move there for so long. I'll pm you when I finally find a place and we get there. I'd love to hang out!

Is anyone else running into the issue of only finding agents/agencies and those agencies requiring a massive 3-6 months of rent UP FRONT? This is ridiculous! What student has that much money up front? They won't even give us the two weeks we need before we get our first loan check or we could pay four months up front! I really wanted to live with my friend that is moving out there at the same time with me (I'm going to UCL, she LSE), but it's looking more and more like we might have to separate because I don't have that kind of money! I've always stayed at the same place in Camden Town, but my usual room isn't available this time, and plus I still really want to live with my friend.

How reasonable is it to stay at a hostel for a few weeks and find a place in those weeks, while physically in London to look at places? And how reasonable is it to find a place that doesn't require so much up front, or maybe doesn't require all the formal documentation of a rental agreement (the place I've always stayed is a huge nice townhouse that is right next to Amy Winehouse's flat, or was =/... and I've always just paid monthly with them. I can come up with 4 months up front, but not till I get my first check, which is 2 weeks in.

Any ideas?

I've had many people recommend dealing with private landlords instead of agencies. They just want to get their place rented and apparently tend to be more lenient with monies up front.

I found a place in two days. Granted, I'm living with a roommate, but I've heard that two students can do the same as I did- rent/live together and rent from a private landlord. Anyway, like jillianbean said, it would probably be easier to rent from a private landlord. My roommate is my landlord and he just wants a deposit (one month's rent) ahead of time and then the first month when I move in. That's it. No crazy amounts.

Then just a 6 month contract; after that, month to month.