Living alone for final year of uni?

For the past year I've been sharing a house with 4 other people who I get on really well with. They're all fairly quiet and extremely nice. One of my housemates does the same course as me, so we also travel to campus together and sit together in lectures.

Unfortunately this arrangement won't last for next year. Despite my friend seeming to be smarter than me; he's also a severe procrastinator, so he's now having to repeat the year. Everyone in the house is moving out because at the start of the year half of us were planning to do year in industry placements, but none of us are any more.

I originally applied for on-campus accommodation a few months ago, but wasn't given a place. So I'm now left looking for a room. I don't know anyone who has a spare room, so I looked online for random houses advertising a spare room.

These houses all had established all-male cliques in who'd known each other from the first week of first year. They were the complete opposite type of people I normally associate with and made it quite clear in a passive-aggressive style that they felt I should go find somewhere else.

I'm now considering living alone in a small studio apartment. My uni's area is pretty expensive, so I'd be paying about $1200/pcm for the cheapest place available compared to about half that for a room in a house share. I find being around the wrong people makes me feel far worse than being on my own. With my own place I know what to expect and realistically it's much more likely that I'd end up with terrible housemates than ones anywhere close to how good my current housemates are.

My first question is, can you afford living alone? 1200 for a studio unit seems REALLY high to me, I couldn't think of having something over 650. Is there any units a bit further away from your school you could look into, then you can commute?
I actually know that I will live alone soon I have no problem with it. That is my only option as I am most definitely not room mate material. Or maybe I haven't met anyone that I think is room mate material.

bramble26 wrote:My first question is, can you afford living alone? 1200 for a studio unit seems REALLY high to me, I couldn't think of having something over 650. Is there any units a bit further away from your school you could look into, then you can commute?
I actually know that I will live alone soon I have no problem with it. That is my only option as I am most definitely not room mate material. Or maybe I haven't met anyone that I think is room mate material.

I could afford it, but I really don't want to pay that kind of money just for rent. It would eat into the money I was planning to use as a deposit to buy a property when I graduate (I can't afford to do that in this area).

The area is around London, so the traffic is too bad to commute from somewhere cheaper.

A slightly cheaper option would be sharing a 2 bed apartment. The other person would probably end up being some asian or other overseas student. I'm fine sharing with one other person. It's mainly going into an already established group that I don't like.

Another option would be living with a resident landlord, but I have some strange eating/sleeping habits, so I'd feel constricted in that environment. I can imagine constantly having to make polite conversation with the landlord in the kitchen or dining/living room. This option feels like something I'd feel embarrassed about and would have to hide if anyone asked where I was living.

Do what you need to do, you don't want to be extremely uncomfortable with people to the point in which you might lapse on school work, every body is different. Look for a bit longer for a room for rent, I'm sure they will pop up all of the time in the London area. Foreign or asian decent room mate would be good, they come from a more reserved society. If you do get stuck in a place your a bit uncomfortable, don't worry, it won't be for forever. Good luck to you!

bramble26 wrote:Do what you need to do, you don't want to be extremely uncomfortable with people to the point in which you might lapse on school work, every body is different. Look for a bit longer for a room for rent, I'm sure they will pop up all of the time in the London area.

I agree. You will have your whole life to live alone but in the next few years money will be necessary.. I say do all you can to conserve it now.

I agree that price for a studio is just insane.

Well, another option I have is to move into a 6 bed house share where nobody knows each other. So I'm guessing they'd all be fairly quiet considering they didn't know anyone to form a group with like I did last year...

SecretHermit wrote:Well, another option I have is to move into a 6 bed house share where nobody knows each other. So I'm guessing they'd all be fairly quiet considering they didn't know anyone to form a group with like I did last year...

I would do that, if it's cheaper. So what if you're the loner. Just explain it to them outright that you'll be friendly to them but you most often will keep to yourself, as you are more comfortable with that. If they aren't complete a**holes they will understand. It could be a good way to rule out the a**holes. And who knows? You could become great friends with some of them. Never will know until you get your foot in the door, eh? That's the biggest hurdle. I have issues with that too.

Actually, I decided against that. The room was tiny and cost $650/pcm plus about $50/pcm more in utility bills.

I've found somewhere else that's $550/pcm including all utility bills. Only catch is the owner of the house lives in a separate building on the same land, but not actually in the house. Only has one other room being rented out, too.

I would check that one out. How many room mate would you have? I'd say that that would be better that the owner doesn't actually live in the house right?

bramble26 wrote:I would check that one out. How many room mate would you have? I'd say that that would be better that the owner doesn't actually live in the house right?

No room mate (that's not common here in the UK). Just another other room with one person in.