Hi all,

the good news: I got the studentship of my dreams at UCL in London!!!! The bad news: I now have to find some sort of accommodation in London, and ideally it should be something I can afford, yet doesn't comprise of a cardboard box under a bridge...

Anyways, as I am sure lots of you have been in a similar situation at the start of their PhD adventure, I was hoping someone would have some sort of advice on which websites, letting agents etc you can recommend and which ones to steer clear of...

I am starting in July and have managed to organize a couch I can stay on for the first few weeks, but that's hardly an ideal situation, so I really want to get this resolved as soon as possible.

Any help will be much appreciated!!!

xxx

Hi Luziat, congrats on getting the studentship! During two spells of househunting in London over the past 18 months I used a site called www.intolondon.com to find places to live. There is all range of options on there, its easy to post an ad, and out of the 20 or so places I looked at only two were total duds (one was some dodgy sublet arrangement and the other was for a bedsit which the landlord organised for 20 people to see at the same time!). Other than that though the site works really well.

Good luck

Congratulations on getting the studentship! :) I have no experience of accommodation in London (being a bit of a country bumpkin I can't imagine anything worse ;-)), but have you tried the university's accommodation office? They might have a list of 'recommended' letting agents etc? There will probably also be somewhere where other students can advertise for shared houses etc.

Good luck with finding something soon. :)

You might have some luck with Spareroom.co.uk. I used it, albeit not in the London areas, and this is how I found my current ( and lovely!) place to live!

Well done on getting a place! I know a few people who have found accommodation (including a friend in London) on gumtree.com.

Hi all,

thanks for all the great tips, I've already checked out some of the recommended websites, and especially intolondon.com seems to be pretty good!

Hopefully I'll find something soon, it definitely isn't an easy feat, London definitely isn't cheap...

xx