Student digs or a room of your own: the tricky business of finding a place to live

Is it a good or a bad thing that Channel 4 comedy Fresh Meat is pretty much on the money in its depiction of shared student accommodation? While you are unlikely to be sharing with someone as drop dead gorgeous as Vod – because, really, who looks like that in real life with no cash for clothes and a terrible diet? – the different personalities, house parties, ego clashes, petty disputes, Post-it notes, sexual tensions and generally dubious hygiene situation will ring a bell with students both past and present.

For first-timers who are going to college away from home, the transition is enormous. You are negotiating everything that your peers who live at home are dealing with – getting to grips with your course and a new style of teaching and learning, making friends and generally orientating yourself to college life – but you have the added dimension of living away from home for the first time.

As a first-year student, your range of accommodation options very much depends on the college you choose. Some colleges have on-campus or at least near-campus student accommodation, for example, while others do not. Digs can be a good option for those who are nervous about moving away, while private rented accommodation is generally where everyone ends up, but that can be a lot to take on in your first year.

First, a warning: at the moment, students are finding themselves in a real bind with accommodation. Increased demand in the rental market leaves students at the bottom of the list for landlords who have a wealth of families and young professionals clamouring for a place. The pressure on renting is also driving up demand for other forms of accommodation. While demand is most acute in Dublin, the accommodation crisis is a countrywide phenomenon, according to a recent Housing Agency report.

Rebecca Redmond is a biosciences student in DIT Kevin Street in Dublin and she is finding the hunt for a place to rent challenging. "Some ads are straight up and tell you that no students need apply," she says. "Others are sneakier and say things like, 'Suitable for young families or professionals'. You call up then they tell you that as a student, you're not what they're looking for."

The shortage of places to rent is also leading to a renewed surge in the market for digs and room rental, according to Eve Kerton, welfare officer in DCU's Student Union. "I am currently trying to get the word out to as many landlords as possible that we need rooms and beds for students," she says. "I'm getting phone-calls from people every week with offers of digs and rooms in houses."

New laws surrounding bedsits that came in 2013 are suppressing that market somewhat, Kerton says, as landlords are required to provide rooms with private bathrooms to tenants under threat of heavy financial penalties if they fail to comply. “The idea of improving accommodation is great of course,” she adds, “but at the moment, there’s no alternative provided.”

First stop should be your college accommodation office but do this as quickly as you can if you have an offer today. Places in all types of accommodation get snapped up very quickly. Student unions can offer alternative avenues. DCU students union has a Facebook page for accommodation and Kerton has been calling landlords who have previously housed DCU students in an effort to maximise the number of accommodation spaces available.

The quality of accommodation has improved somewhat. The pitiful hovels of yesteryear are fewer and farther between, largely thanks to an increase in quality accommodation. "Most landlords have upped their game over the past decade," says Edward Thurman of Collegecribs.ie. That said, Redmond is finding that the rental price is pushing the better flats and apartments beyond reach.

“I looked at a place near my college, I didn’t get it, but while it was within the budget, it was tiny and there was no sitting room, which may sound like a small thing, but it’s not great,” she says. “You don’t need much and you can’t afford much.”

Redmond believes she will have to find somewhere outside of the city and commute to college, but this also has a knock-on effect, says Kerton, as students from city-centre colleges increase the rental demand in suburban areas.

For first years, student residences, if your college has them, are a great option, she adds. Colleges tend to hold places for first-year students and some are already oversubscribed. "It's a great way to make friends, and it's incredibly popular. It's the ideal gateway into college life." See collegecribs.ie. rent.ie and daft.ie for properties to rent near your college. generationaccommodation2014.com is a pilot project at UCD matching students with them with older people who have a spare room.

Renting, digs or college accommodation?

Digs

The set up: You have a room in a family home and meals – generally breakfast and dinner – will be provided. The popularity of digs fell with the increase in on-campus and student accommodation but it is still a viable option.

Situations vary and you may have the option of a room on your own or sharing. It’s a home away from home and you’ll generally have access to the comforts you’re used to like the couch and the television. Bills are included.

Pros

It is an easy transition as this set-up is the one that will most clearly resemble your own home. In digs, someone looks after you. They may not be doing your laundry (although some do apparently) but your meals will be on the table when you get in from college.

No need to worry about bills or the weekly grocery shop.

If there are other students in the digs with you, you get to know them but you can keep your distance if you want. There’s no shared cooking, cleaning or money matters so things are simple.

Generally digs will be in a nice safe area and the people you’re living with will keep tabs on you. If you’re sick, at least you know someone’s in the house to call a doctor if you need one.

Financially, it’s all-inclusive and therefore a lot less complicated. It’s like living with your Mammy without living with your Mammy.

Cons

While it’s lovely having someone to cook your dinner, living in someone else’s house can certainly cramp your style.

You have to live by house rules and it’s a rare digs-provider who would allow visitors, let alone late-night soirees.

You don’t have the responsibilities and complications of your friends in other forms of accommodation, but you don’t have the independence either.

Having to be home at a particular time if you want to get fed can begin to get in the way of your social life.

It’s expensive because it’s all-inclusive. There’s no room for budgeting. Staying at weekends may not be an option. If it is, it often costs extra.

It’s like living with your Mammy without living with your Mammy.

On-campus or purpose-built student accommodation

The set-up: As the name suggests the accommodation is on, or at least within spitting distance of, your college campus. Not all colleges have this form of accommodation to offer. If yours does, it’s an excellent stepping stone from the comforts of home to the roulette that can be the private rental sector.

According to Collegecribs.ie, typically, in on-campus accommodation, you will be sharing with other students. If you don’t know anyone upon coming to college, you will be allocated a place with other first-year students.

This kind of accommodation may be college-run or run by a private company (such as the new Montrose Student Residences in what was formerly the Montrose Hotel across the road from UCD, and which will be run by UK-based company Zigguart Student Living) but it all operates in largely the same way. Fees are usually paid per semester, bi-annually or all at once and they usually include bills.

You will need to fend for yourself when it comes to food.

Accommodation will be fully furnished and there will be an area for you to study. There are rules about visitors and parties and there will generally be someone (a residential warden, for example) on site, both to keep an eye on things but also for you to go to if you encounter a problem.

Pros

A brilliant way to meet new people. So many students all living together, you can’t help but make friends.

Location, location, location. Rolling out of bed and into a lecture is easy when you’re living on or near campus. Everything, the library, the student bar, the gym is incredibly close by.

It is independent living streamlined. You are responsible for getting yourself up in the morning and for feeding yourself but you don’t have rent and bills to sort out.

Twenty-four-hour security is standard and that means safety. Having someone to go to in the event of a crisis is a nice safety net, too.

There’s nobody keeping an eye on your comings and goings. If you choose to skip a lecture it’s on your head alone.

Your college or a private company is your landlord so you can be reasonably certain of avoiding any dodgy dealings.

Cons

Even if you apply to live with your friends, there is every chance that you may not end up with them in some colleges.

Campus accommodation means living with rules. Those rules really begin to grate when you really want your friends to visit.

Then again, not all residences are the same. Some require you to get permission in advance for friends to stay over whereas others do not.

It’s expensive because you’re paying for utilities up front.

Twenty-four-hour security can also cramp a student’s style.

Living with lots of other students can be loud and chaotic. Think carefully about whether this will bother you.

You’ll be doing your own grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning and laundry.

Private rented accommodation

The set up: You look for accommodation, find a place you like, hope the landlord likes you enough to say you can live there. You pay your rent, your bills and everything else. You deal with the arguments that inevitably arise about money, cleaning and people sticking Post-it notes on their bread and cheese.

If the washing machine springs a leak, you have to deal with your landlord and get him or her to sort it out.

It’s messy, responsible, complicated but gloriously and wonderfully independent and free.

Everyone ends up going for this option eventually. For a first year, it takes guts.

Pros

True independent living. Nobody checking up on you. Come and go as you please. Cheaper than the other options but remember utilities are extra. It does make budgeting easier as you can take control of your finances and cut back where you need to.

You can choose your housemates.

In fact choice is the key. Within reason, you can choose where to live, how much to pay, what type of accommodation you want and so-on.

You can have your friends over. You can even have a party.

Cons

True independence brings true responsibility. You have to deal with regular rent payments and bills, as well as dealing with a landlord. Some landlords are great, others, less so.

If there’s a problem, you have to deal with it yourself.

You never really know somebody unless you’ve rented a house with them. If things go wrong and someone moves out, you need to find a replacement housemate pronto.

Be warned, a party could cost you. Any damage will come out of the deposit you paid to the landlord at the start of the year.