The cheapest room on the list is rarely the cheapest option when you factor in transport, groceries, a missed deadline because nobody woke you up for it, and the bond you’ll fight tooth and nail to get back. Students looking to cut costs when it comes to their accommodation compare weekly rent figures in isolation for a reason – the right metric for calculating value and predicting viability is a combination of five filters, applied as a total-cost, total-experience comparison across the available options. Here’s how to apply them
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Why weekly rent is the wrong starting point
The advertised rent for a private share house at $220 a week is still way cheaper than that catered residence at $340 a week until you remember to factor in your internet, electricity, water, 45-minutes commute five days a week, and the groceries you’ll inevitably have to pay for due to having to self cater despite budgeting “$80 a week on food” in March.
Catered and semi-catered arrangements have everything bar transport bundled in that single figure, while private rentals add everything on afterwards and electricity bills come out of your pocket around six weeks later. Do it right. Get hold of a realistic grocery spend, the cost for utilities, a sensible commute budget, and the hidden costs of transport before you even start comparing.
The gulf between cheap and affordable is often far narrower than you’re led to believe.
The five filters that actually matter
Cost is important, but far from everything. Here are the differentiators that make the difference between good and bad accommodation.
True cost of living. Take an accountant’s view on the situation and list out the actual cost of living in your chosen option. This is not a marketing budget, this is rent, bills, food, and transport added up.
Support and safety. Have a look at your available support options. If something goes down, who can you turn to?
Embedded academics. Is the option providing you with academic support and mentorship? Can you study there?
Contract flexibility. How does the contract work? Can you get out before the year is up? Can you stay over the semester break?
Social integration. How does the option encourage you to connect with other students?
Apply these filters to every viable option – residential college, purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), private, homestay – before you compare the viable options.
Residential colleges: paying for structure, not just a room
A residential college offers a living-learning community, with housing, meals, and academic and pastoral support provided.
It’s an expensive option, but one that removes a series of everyday decisions from your in-year planning: what to cook, whether to get more milk, who can recap last week’s lecture for me, how to unwind before an exam while it’s 10pm and I’m on my own. Essentially, the model is built on the principle that where you live should serve your work and social life, not the other way around.
By contrast, PBSA’s rent out studios and shared apartments, and generally offer more in the way of additional facilities, such as gyms, and social mixers, but fewer in terms of dedicated academic support. Private rentals are just that – accommodation with a lease agreement. Your landlord is far less likely to offer academic support, and your flatmates are more likely to be other renters than students. You run your own community here; it’s equivalent to most students’ experience in Australia.
It’s easy to dismiss this as being unnecessarily fussy, a concern only parents might bother with. And yet, if you find yourself isolated and without friends in a new country for the first time, and the first semester is already slipping away, the second is unlikely to be much better.
The commute you don’t notice until week four
All tours are conducted in daylight, most on weekdays, when services are at their most reliable. They’re also conducted under different conditions to the ones you’re likely to encounter at 9pm following an afternoon lab class, or on a Sunday, when the bus you’ve come to rely on is waiting for you every 40 minutes, not every 10.
A commute of 40 minutes from your room to the university doesn’t cost you an hour of your life. It costs you two, every day, four times a week, for four months. That’s 25 hours a month not spent studying, sleeping, or doing anything else productive. Suddenly that discount on the property “in the sticks” doesn’t look so attractive, does it?
Bike storage, night bus timetables, and whether there’s a short walk or a 3km stroll to the university when you’re soaked to the bone are all considerations you can’t make on the basis of a map. In fact, ask any agent or college to provide detail on these matters and you’ll get a good idea of how seriously they take their responsibility to you as a student.
Contracts: the fine print decides more than the price
Private rentals are often on a 12-month lease, while universities operate on a semester system. That puts students in an impossible position: paying for a room they’re unlikely to need for the entire year, or abandoning a lease and potentially paying for damages for a space they barely used over summer.
Residential colleges and a few PBSA providers have more flexible options, including per-semester and academic year contracts, that operate on a far more logical timeframe for students.
Ask around if you intend to travel or take a break during the year, as some colleges will allow you to leave your room vacant for part of the year without owing any rent.
Also ask about notice periods and subletting options, and the maintenance policy for the premises: a leaking tap in your private rental can take weeks to fix if your landlord isn’t invested in the matter, whereas a college with staff on site will have resolved it within the day.
A bond is another one of those expenses that gets underestimated by students: it’s four to six weeks’ rent, up-front, on top of whatever your initial payment is for the room. Budget for it separately and assume you’ll only get it back at the end of the year in full if the premises are in the exact condition they were in when you moved in. Photograph everything.
Food is a bigger decision than it looks
Choosing a catered option means you get your social life practically built in, along with the obvious benefit of not having to prepare your own meals. Food is often a bonding exercise among students – you and your gang will invariably settle on a rotation of cooking for each other, or at least eating together if you’re all at the same campus. Similarly, if you’re not looking to build in that social life, self catering might be an option you feel better about choosing.
Finally, and perhaps most crucially, a meal three times a day is one of the best preventative measures for homesickness available to a student. “Am I tired and emotional because I’ve been moping over a burnt pan of lentils all afternoon, or do I just miss my dog?” is a question best avoided if possible.
The belonging factor nobody prices in
According to the NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement), students who live on campus in their first year report more frequent contact with faculty and peers, as well as increased levels of engagement with both academic and social opportunities, than their off-campus counterparts do.
That’s not an inconsequential finding. Students who report a sense of belonging at university are significantly more likely to stick it out through their first challenging semester than those who don’t, and far less likely to drop out in week six.
Living-learning environments, of which residential colleges are an example, facilitate that belonging in a far more systematic way than private rentals do: through structured social opportunities, shared meals, and study groups, among other things. A college environment makes it easier for you to engage with other students, whereas a private rental leaves it up to chance and your initiative, the latter of which is in low supply during your first semester.
It’s precisely that factor which makes first-year experiences so critical. The difference between knowing nobody, and knowing enough people to feel like you have some sort of social safety net, can define whether university is a fundamentally isolating experience for you, or a genuinely enriching one
Booking timing: the market punishes late deciders
The good rooms in all accommodation types are booked first. If you’re looking at a flat share ad, the nicer setups will be taken before the ones that are smaller, or have far less privacy. The same goes for private rentals, and PBSA complexes: in each case, you have to be quick if you want a one bedroom apartment or a nicer private room, both of which tend to be snapped up quickly when viewed. In the case of private rentals, especially, you’re likely to be asked to commit shortly after touring an apartment, which means that if you take longer to decide, you’re likely to have missed out on the best options.
If you’re considering more than one type of accommodation, start earlier so that you can compare them at a leisurely pace. Chances are you’re going to be disappointed if you settle too quickly, but it’s a far worse feeling to make the decision too late and miss out.
International students face a different set of constraints
International students face high prices in the private market for at least the first several months due to a lack of local rental history, and the inability to personally view a property prior to signing a lease. All-inclusive, furnished options are a given for most overseas arrivals, as is a greater degree of support in adjusting to the local environment.
Homestay options give international students the opportunity to meet a host family who can provide answers to the small everyday questions that come up: where to get a phone plan, how to buy groceries, etc. They’re also an option to consider if you’re looking to immerse yourself in the local culture.
Logistics aside, the support structures in place in homestays, PBSA, and residential colleges are another reason why the option might be worth it for international students, for at least the first year. Everything from your meals to your social life are more likely to be taken care of, which could make the transition far easier.
Matching the option to the student, not the other way around
There’s no simple answer, but a student with a preference for solitary living, who is already familiar with the city, and can cook for themselves with relative ease is arguably better off in a private let and far more likely to be happy with their choice. As a general rule, however, and especially for overseas arrivals, the benefits of the structured support offered by residential colleges tend to outweigh the costs of losing some degree of personal autonomy.
Apply the five filters before you look at the advertised rent figures. The number that matters is the one you’ll actually end up paying, and what you get for it at the end of the year.
