After living abroad in the same apartment for 4 years, it occurred to me that I would actually have to search for accommodation for pretty much the first time in my life. Up until now, housing had always been provided or quickly offered. I lived at home for most of my time at University. When I decided to move closer to school, I spent a very brief time looking at apartments and craigslist ads before my boss offered to rent me a room in her house. I stayed in a dorm during my year abroad and then went back to living at home while searching for jobs and internships. The internship I was accepted to had a house for interns to stay in and when I was selected for the JET Program, housing was taken care of by my contracting organization.
So that leaves me, a 28-year-old soon to be postgraduate student, having to search for accommodation abroad for the first time in her life. Now, technically I was guaranteed university housing for my first year. But University housing isn’t always the cheapest or best quality. (I also later found out it would not work well for my specific program) I wanted to minimize my costs as much as possible and find someplace I could be comfortable in for the duration of my degree.
What surprised me:
Going into this search, I expected things to be expensive and competition to be high, but there were still a few things that surprised me.
1. High-end Student Apartments
Going through some of the student accommodations offered by private companies, I was surprised that there were several marketed as high-end apartments. I don’t know how things are across the pond, but isn’t the student experience about making the best of basic accommodations and getting a place that’s up to code, clean, and functional? Smart-TVs, design-led, modern, high-spec kitchens, I’m reading through these descriptions and wondering who can afford this?
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen bottom of the barrel basic dorms that I could barely stand one night in. But I’ve also been in student apartments that look totally fine and liveable without having luxurious modern design and built-in TVs. Maybe this is on me for even looking at private accommodation providers in the first place. Maybe this is a cultural difference. I understand the attraction in terms of social life and convenience, I mean, who wouldn’t love a smart tv and in house cinema you could rent to watch movies with friends?
2. Prices
I knew since I would be living in the city, and a University city at that, I would have to pay city prices. But given my limited rental experience, the numbers were still a bit of a surprise. (And that was before converting the currency、ouch) Trying to look at other options revealed that elsewhere prices weren’t much better and house shares often had the added cost of bills to consider. Not looking good. I was also momentarily confused by the fact that rent was listed on a weekly basis? I’d only ever experienced paying rent on a monthly basis, maybe prorated if I leave halfway through the month, but generally given on a monthly basis. So for like half a second, I thought the rent wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. And even when I thought I found somewhere reasonable, there was another surprise.
3. Speed of Reservations
Big city competition means places get snapped up as quickly as they’re listed. Those accommodation provider apartments had already been mostly reserved a year in advance. My mother found a listing for a place I thought would be perfect, a small apartment with its own kitchen and bath, and when I sent an email to enquire only a day later it had already been reserved. Reading through the student Facebook groups I had joined, any listing quickly had multiple people commenting with their interest. Others said that if you didn’t have notifications for various apartment sites set so you could answer immediately, someone else would take it before you had a chance to see it. That just increased the pressure to find something and make a decision on it fast, which I was reluctant to do because of the high costs and the fact that I couldn’t check the places out in person, not to mention the disadvantage of being in a different time zone.
4. Conflicting Reviews
Wanting to do my due diligence in research, I tried to find student reviews for the university and private accommodation. The problem was that some of the places I looked at either had very few reviews or had very conflicting reviews. I wasn’t sure if I should trust the handful of negative reviews bringing up valid issues about temperature and air circulation or give more weight to the more numerous positive reviews. It also sounded like the university postgraduate housing blocks were in noisy areas with a lot of construction. My current apartment is right on a road and I’ve had enough of being woken up by large trucks driving by. I wasn’t interested in trading that in for construction noise.
What I was looking for:
Going into it, I thought I had reasonable wants for my accommodation. After living in my own apartment for 4 years I have gotten used to not sharing and wanted to continue that streak, but I’ve done okay with a shared kitchen in the past. The main features I was looking for were:
- My own bathroom and shower
- Near transport and/or the zoo where my practical sessions would be
- Preferably in a quiet area
- Bills and furniture included
Is this reasonable? Or delusional? I don’t really know, being an inexperienced renter and all.
I wasn’t going to have a lot of money to spend on furnishing someplace for such a short time, and bills included would just make budgeting and payments easier. I’ve never been big on parties or nightlife so I wanted to stay as far away from that as possible so I could concentrate on my studies. I would really only be traveling to maybe 2 places regularly for classes so as long as transport links were relatively close that would suffice.
What was suggested:
The University accommodation office‘s website had a lot of information and links to read through, which I did before starting my search. There were links to private accommodation providers as well as specifications and costs for University housing for postgraduates. They also had some tips for choosing a place and what to look out for. The problem was they strongly advised against signing an agreement for a place without seeing it in person. Difficult to do when you are living halfway across the world and will only have about a month turnaround moving from one country to another and starting school. This worried me since I didn’t want to commit to something and risk getting scammed or have a bad living situation. The speed at which listings were getting filled though meant I wouldn’t have time to arrange a trip to do an accommodation search. I also didn’t want to wait until the month before classes started when competition would probably be highest.
What I went with:
The downside to starting my search so early was that most listings weren’t for the next academic year, but were for short term winter or summer lets. Seeing how fast things were getting snapped up though, I was afraid to wait too long. I tried to get a lettings agent to help me with my search, but they didn’t respond after I told them I was out of the country. I responded to a post on the school search board and again, never got a reply. Finally, I found another place that looked nice on the student union’s lettings page. I contacted the live-in landlord through the page and was able to ask a few questions and set up a meeting in just a few days. It wasn’t a self-contained apartment but it did hit some of the points on my list.
So what did I end up with?
- House share
- Shared bathroom and kitchen
- Quiet residential area near park and shopping street
- Large bedroom with bay windows
- View of the garden
- Bills inclusive
- Includes cleaning of the room, linens (which are provided), and common areas
Initially, I was kind of against a house share since I had seen so many that were listed as being for like 7 people, which I felt was too many for me to deal with. I also really, really wanted at least a private bathroom since I’ve never actually had to share before and, let’s face it, sometimes when you have an upset stomach you kind of want a private bathroom to deal with that. After seeing the listing, the house rules, and speaking with the landlord though I decided it would be doable for the short time I’d be there. The house has 2 bathrooms and only 3 other rooms are being rented so I wouldn’t have to share use with that many people (one of the school dorms said bathrooms may have to be shared with up to 9 people. No thanks!) and she said it had never been a problem. It was also in a great residential area which would be quieter than the dorms in the middle of the city.
A big plus for me was the proximity to the park where I could go for runs and enjoy some of the green space as well as being close to one of the main shopping streets with supermarkets, restaurants, and independent shops. And of course, having bills inclusive and furnishings provided would make things a lot simpler for me as an international student. The price was just slightly cheaper than the postgraduate dorms (although still a tough swallow once I converted the currency). Overall, the convenience and location made it worth not having a private bathroom so I made a deposit and have secured my accommodation in advance.
I think searching for accommodation can be pretty stressful, especially if you are searching from outside the country and can’t make it there to check things out in person. I was really afraid to leave it last minute and risk having to settle for something I didn’t like or would cause more stress or be too expensive. Given the conditions I was under, the best I could do was search through the University run listings page. I’m looking forward to enjoying the big windows overlooking the garden and thinking about what things I can bring to personalize the room a little (a favorite blanket or some postcards perhaps), so until then I can relax a little and enjoy my remaining time in my little Japanese apartment.
