Advice Please, Daughter Off To Uni Buy or Rent?

rsykes2000

Hi v_f Question was asked earlier about places to live. Hyde Park, Woodhouse, Burley and Headingley are the student areas. Armley and Kirkstall are also close, less studenty but affordable. 2 bed back to backs or terraces there start at around 125, but are in the 150-160 region for 3 bed ones that are in the slightly better streets. Other nice areas are further north - Chapel Allerton and Roundhay are nice but more expensive.
As for areas to avoid, basically the east and south of the city - Middleton, Belle Isle, Cross Green, Richmond Hill, Hunslet, Gipton, Seacroft, Harehills (having said all that, Beeston and Holbeck do have some OK areas). North of the city - Chapeltown isn't great (although improving), neither is Little London.
Any questions or more specifics about areas, please feel free to ask. I'm not an expert by any means but have lived here for the last 15 years - came to University and love the place so stayed

brasso

A hall of residence isn't a bad place to live for the first (and only the first) year. Yes it's a small room but the social life is generally fantastic, and you're likely to make friends in hall that you'll keep for the rest of your life. Some halls are really nice places to live. Can't remember the name of it but there's a secluded one in Leeds north of Headingley with rooms arranged around a green. Very nice place to stay. As for the people who'll "do your head in" in halls, sure, but you just don't hang around with people you don't like, surely?

The first year at university is tremendous, and it seems a shame to cut yourself off like this. You want to meet as many people as possible in the first year, and it will put you in a much better position to know who you want to share with in the second. There's plenty of time to experience the 'real world' in the 2nd and 3rd years and for the rest of your life. Frankly, bu99er responsibility and the real world!! You're likely to enjoy yourself much more in a hall in the first year than stuck in some terrace in Armley being 'responsible'.

Just my view.

Good city though.

Arthur22_2

Just to put the other side of the halls experience...if you get stuck with a load of people you don't like, then you're stuck for a year. I was miserable my first year in halls and I know others who were too, just because I didn't really fit in with the random people I ended up with. Much much happier in second/third years when I could choose who to live with, minus the deafening music at four am every night and the vomit and all the rest of it!

brasso

Arthur22 wrote:

Just to put the other side of the halls experience...if you get stuck with a load of people you don't like, then you're stuck for a year. I was miserable my first year in halls and I know others who were too, just because I didn't really fit in with the random people I ended up with. Much much happier in second/third years when I could choose who to live with, minus the deafening music at four am every night and the vomit and all the rest of it!

Sorry Arthur, you should have asked me turn it down a bit!

Seriously though, yes, I also had people in my first year halls that weren't my type (nor I their's of course), but it wasn't a problem. I just didn't sit with them in teh bar, or invite them to my parties.

I also agree that I enjoyed the freedom of my 2nd and 3rd years more but I ended up sharing with 2 guys who'd been in hall with me, and 25 years after graduating, I'm still in touch with plenty of people I first met in hall. I was glad to get out after a year but at the same time, it was a great experience and gave me a much firmer social foothold in university life than if I'd been going off to a house in the suburbs with my partner.

But we're all different. Maybe the OP's daughter prefers that. The thing about Leeds though is that any house you're likely to have bought for you isn't going to be just round the corner from the SU, it's likely to be miles away.

chant1l

Financially it is a great idea, but I have to agree with other posters that uni is a lot more to do with severing apron strings than mortgaging yourself to them. Learning financial independance is another thing, and being able to operate without mums help. She could also be a little resented, as having a house bought for you is a bit of a cop out?!
Definitley let her have her first year in halls, and I would add avoid Beeston - ls11, struck me as being a pit.
Apologies to all Beestonites.

ianfao

Everybody was a winner! BUT... be sure to buy carefully, in the 'right' area [quiet residential, first time buyer type property in reasonable condition... maybe previous occupant elderly... etcetera] ]

Just a slight moan from the other side of the argument if I may.

Not everyone is a winner. Speaking as someone who lives in a "quiet residential area of Leeds" we had students move in across the road.

On either side of the student house were couples with babies and young children. These areas are family areas and really not suitable for students.

Of course students want to play music and be up all hours as that is part of student life, but stick to the student areas please.

voucher_fairy

chant1l wrote:

Financially it is a great idea, but I have to agree with other posters that uni is a lot more to do with severing apron strings than mortgaging yourself to them. Learning financial independance is another thing, and being able to operate without mums help. She could also be a little resented, as having a house bought for you is a bit of a cop out?!
Definitley let her have her first year in halls, and I would add avoid Beeston - ls11, struck me as being a pit.
Apologies to all Beestonites.

Thanks for all your advice this is the OP's daughter (again) just wanted to add that a lot of people have been saying that my mum should "let me" have my first year in the halls, but i dont actually want to live in th halls, if i wanted to my parents would be more than happy (in fact probably happier as it would cost a lot less!!!) to "let me", but its my choice to live in a house/flat of my own. Also, my mum being my landlord is just the same as having any other landlord, shes not gonna be lenient about rent payment so im still gonna be "learning the value of money" etc, but also, im not gonna get messed about if anything goes wrong with the flat, and being 200 miles away (we live in norfolk/suffolk border near the sea ...ill miss that) from her means itll take her four hours to get here so i think the apron strings would be as severed as is necessary! Just a case of deciding weather its best to rent/buy, and also, if anyone else has any reccomentations on where abouts in leeds to live, that would be very helpfull!!! cheers!

brasso

Forget all that stuff about learning the value of money -- you'll have to do that wherever you live. You'll have a better time in hall, that's all people are trying to tell you. After the first year you'll have a much better idea of whereabouts in the city you want to live/avoid.

There have been quite a few recommendations on this thread about areas.

CB1979_2

wow couldn't be bothered to read the whole lot, but if for financial reasons I would say get her somewhere, hopefully she'll live rent free as her 2+ m8s will be subsidising it/covering all costs.

if really for her benefit, I would say get her in halls for 1st year and then decide summer of next year.

I moved to uni with my now ex and bought a place in Stoke-on-Trent, no mortgage bought for £22k cash sold for £81k 4 years later, so a nice profit, this was 2001-2005, but I feel I missed out on a lot for not being in halls as by the time I had first gone to my lessons, etc everyone else had already known each other for a month, and also they got introduced to other people's friends etc etc.

oh would've cost me & my g/f about £8k per year if we were renting in halls,

also what if your daughter decides uni isn't for her after 6 months?

so IMO let her enjoy the 1st year, get a solid group of m8s (also sus out who she can trust and won't take the p*ss!) and then decide if they want to do it or not.

and as has been said if something goes wrong with the flat will she be getting it in the neck from her housemates?

tough decisions

brasso

Also, has any relationship ever survived 3 years at uni? Not that I've ever heard of. So what happens if the OP's daughter and bf split halfway through the first year?