Accommodation

In the UK it’s traditional to pick a university a long, long way from home. But many students in Australia and New Zealand opt to go to their home town university, to try and keep costs down. This has an effect on accommodation, and there often isn’t the amount offered by many UK universities.

The types of accommodation available, however, are similar. These include university colleges, halls of residence, or renting a flat or house with friends. Study Options recommends first year undergraduates go for university accommodation, as living in halls is a great way of meeting people and making friends, but many postgraduates prefer to go for private housing. This means arriving in the city a few weeks before term starts and booking temporary accommodation while looking for a suitable place to rent.

Make sure you do your research as housing application deadlines are often early, and places limited. The best source of information are the university accommodation service websites, many of which carry online application forms as well as useful advice and contacts.

Renting a house or flat 

If you’re not planning to go into university accommodation and would like to get idea of what rental prices are like in a particular city, have a look at www.gumtree.com.au, which carries free local classified adverts and which has become the go-to site for most young Australians looking for a place to live. Once you’re on the homepage you can click on the Gumtree site specific to your destination city – Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Sydney or Tasmania.

While this is a great way to get an idea of what to expect, we’d strongly recommend that you only arrange rental accommodation once you have actually arrived in Australia. There’s usually a enormous range of properties, prices and locations available at any time, and it’s impossible to make a properly informed decision unless you’re actually there to check out those all-important factors like public transport links, value for money, what the neighbourhood feels like, safety and so on.

Just like in the UK, you’ll have to sign a lease or tenancy agreement when you take on a rental property, which is usually for six months. Once signed, these agreements are very difficult to get out of if the house or flat isn’t what you’d expected. So, once again – do the groundwork before you go, but don’t commit!