rent or buy student house in leics

phebe3

I am not realy sure whether to put this in mortgages or studets thread but anyway here goes....
My daughter is a first year student at Leics uni and in their accomodation. next year she is looking at sharing a house with 4 others. they have been looking at houses to rent through the uni housing office and the rent is around £50 a week per student in a house sleeping 5. She says this is for 12 months (which ob she doesn't need but can understand the landlord!) and doesn't include rates etc I , and she doesn't know if this is the norm or if some areas are safer than others etc as we don't know Leicester at all.
We may be in a position where we could buy a house in Leics (tho not outright!!) and charge her and friend for rent. I do know her friends and wouldn't say any of them are super rowdy etc however, we do live 50 mins from Leics so if anything went wrong house wise (broken heating etc)this would be a pain, not living nearer.
so my questions are...are the rents about right? Yes, we could buy a house and rent it out but is this advisable?
thanks

proudmum_3

Hello,

Not sure how much help i can be, and i am sure that someone will be along soon with more advice.
My son is currently in his 3rd year at UEA and pays £200 per month in rent. He shares with 3 girls (lucky him!) in a 4 bedroomed house, each paying around the same. (2 rooms are a bit smaller, so they don't pay quite as much)
They have to pay for their utility bills - gas, electric, water etc.. but students are exempt from paying council tax.
£50.00 a week sounds reasonable to me.
I have to say though, unless your daughter is extremely lucky, most student accomodation is very basic and in some cases a bit old fashioned. but by going through the Uni housing office they will/should have been checked out beforehand with regards to safety etc..
Most landlords also charge the full 12 months rent and it's up to the students if they stay there during holidays. I know a couple my son shares with also work, so tend to stay there through most of the summer.
Also, most landlords will re new the contract for a second year if those students wish to stay. It's also easier for them as they don't have to re advertise.
Whether you buy or not is your decision obviously, but would it really be necessary especially if after Uni your daughter leaves Leicester? You would have the option of renting afterwards to other students, but would you really want the hassle?
All i can say is that from my (or my Sons) experience is that he has been really happy in his little house and has been fortunate have a good landlord that was willing to repair any problems they had.

Good luck and i hope your daughter finds something suitable.

chris_topher97

£50 is alright for student rent in Leicester, i pay about £58 with bills on top at my place. Its also common practice to have a 12month contract, although a lot of places will only charge half rent for july and august if your not living there, so check on that.

You said you wanted to know about the area, but youve not said whereabouts the house is. In general though Leicester is a pretty safe place anyway, i've never had any worries or problems living here.

With the rent or buy choice, your going to have to put a lot of thought into if you want the hassle of it all. I dont know what sort of hoops a landlord has to jump through to rent a house as student housing, but compared to what you'd pay in a mortgage i think theres a fair bit of profit to be made if your willing to look into it.

Hope that helps, the first two answers at least, i dont really know enough about buying houses to help you on the third point.

blue_ashleigh

£50 is pretty good overall. I pay £50p/w for my accomodation but do have to pay bills on top etc. I think if you can buy the house (without needing to get a mortgage) then you would be making money which is always good. However, if you're going to end up with debt then I think letting your daughter rent is probably the better option, unless you intend to keep renting it out to future students. If the landlord's been checked out by the uni then there shouldn't be any problems. Student accomodation tends to be pretty crummy generally (although the uni will have a list of requirements before allowing the landlord on 'the list' - e.g. bed, desk, wardrobes in every room, gas/ electric certificates, a communal living area etc), it's all part and parcel of being a student!

If you're worried about th area, then I'm not quite sure how you'd get round that. Whether you buy a house or not, it'll still have to be within a certain distance of the uni anyway...

mummytofour

i would save the cash until she is ready to set up on her own then see how I could help. I just think it would be a mine field and as you wont being living in the area even more of a problem should there be any hassle with the house.

TDQO

You're lucky it's that cheap! I go to uni in a small town with a massive housing shortage, rent starts at about 80 a week without bills!