It’s late August and the new term is about 6-7 weeks away. One thing dominates this time of year more than anything else: clearing. Clearing happens because students offered solid places reject offers in favour of another choice or don’t quite make the grade and must settle for a second or third choice. Many students successfully enter clearing but it can be a mad rush. Once you have a place, housing will be an early priority.
Find a Pad
The first thing you’ll notice when you look through our site is that we offer choice. We provide a range of student accommodation from housing to private halls. Whether you’re looking for a room in a house with postgrads, do the halls experience or look for a private flat, we strongly recommend you look here first. It’s broken down into easy sections by university town/city. You’ll find plenty of choices, even at this time of year, as it’s rare for the entire stock to be gone until the last few days before the academic year starts. Even then there will be some openings.
We update our site regularly, so if you don’t find anything suitable today, come back tomorrow where we’re likely to have more available.
The Housemates Feature
This is one of the most powerful tools on the Pads for Students website. It allows groups of present student tenant occupiers to place an ad for a replacement housemate. There will always be dropouts and because the cost of renting property is set and therefore dependent on the number of student tenants, housemates will look to fill an empty room.
Simultaneously, if you’re looking for an established property with a spare room, you too may advertise your availability to fill rooms that have recently been vacated due to dropout, illness, or in the case of postgraduates of mixed finish dates – graduation.
Again, as with the standard search above, check regularly as students will be searching for new housemates throughout the year. It’s vital that you add your own details to students looking for new housemates can approach you too – doubling your search effort and increasing the chance of a successful outcome.
The Power of Social Media
As a millennial, we perhaps don’t need to explain to you how important social media is to find what you need. You may discover when searching our site that the perfect listing requires two or more housemates. If you attended an open day or have made friends going to the same institute, reach out to them first to discuss whether or not they have found somewhere. The more you share and encourage others to share, the greater your chance of finding the right accommodation for you.
Good luck!