When to look?

When you look depends on the kind of accommodation that you are looking for.

If you are looking for a place in an independent student hostel or private hall of residence, you may need to apply months in advance. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a flat/house or a room with a resident landlord, you will not normally be able to arrange this more than 4-6 weeks in advance.

Some university accommodation offices will encourage their landlords to advertise early for September. This means that some lucky students are able to arrange their housing as early as May. However, it is a small minority of students that are able to do this and there is no real evidence to show that housing found in May is any better than that found later on.The majority of students do not arrange their housing until August/September. They will usually arrange temporary housing in London either in a hotel, college hall of residence (usually open to guests both within and outside the University over the summer) or hostel whilst they are looking. Our Guide to short stay housing will help you to do this. To access this, please click here.

Provided you are well organised, it shouldn’t take more than two weeks to find your housing.

You should not try to book your housing without being in London and also, if you are looking for housing that is in great demand (i.e. centrally located), you should try not to leave your search until September.