Before choosing your next property here are our top 5 things to consider

It is so important that you are happy with the amount that you are spending on your rent on a weekly basis, its all good and well having an amazing expensive house, but you’ll get pretty fed up with it if it means you don’t have any money to go out and about! Some groups decide arrange it so individual house mates pay more or less each depending on the room size in a property, but make sure you’re all on the same page about affordability before you start looking to avoid disappointment and disagreement. The price of a property will often depend on the location…

The main student locations are City Centre, Jesmond, Sandyford and Heaton – each have positive and negative points. Why not check them out in more detail Information for Tenants

It may sound ridiculous, but you should make sure you know and trust the people you are going to be living with, especially if you haven’t lived together before. A 12 month contract is a long time to be with people who you don’t necessarily click with, so make sure you pick the best people to live with!

Once you have decided on a budget for your ideal property, you need to take into account utility prices on top of this which you and your friends will need to pay. Some properties come with Bills included options – we offer these on our managed properties. Bill included options can take the stress out of organising this between you, and often have generous usage allowances which means you can actually put the heating on instead of hiding under another blanket in the winter to save money!

It is important to go with a well known agent, and one who is registered with the correct professional bodies, such as ARLA (association of residential letting agents), NALS (national approved lettings scheme) or the NAEA (national association of estate agents)– if an agent is affiliated with these kind of organisations, you know that they are reputable or they will have ‘higher powers’ to answer to!