Mission: find a private accommodation!

For those who’re choosing to live in a private accommodation (I understand by that, not the accommodation from the UWS) here is a piece of advice to choose the right place.

According to our personal experience, we wanted to be located in Glasgow center. The first day, we went in a estate agent’s to see how it was working. Well lot’s of difficulties: have a UK guarantor and a UK bank account credit check, a deposit (and of courses fees). So for a first day it was quiet difficult. Of course we hadn’t planned to find a accommodation with an estate agent. But it was to get some information.

So here are 3 possibilities:

-     The  ads in the free newspapers (we haven’t really tried)

-    www.gumtree.co.uk this is a very useful website where you can try to find a accommodation according to your needs. It’s like Ebay, you’ve got several parameters to determinate your need. It’s also give you notion of rental prices.

-          Byres Road. In this street, there is a window full of ads regarding accommodation (and other stuff). So you just have to find out what you are looking for and call the owner and make an appointment with him. That is how we found our accommodation near Alexandra Park in Dennistown.

It took us 2 days to find an appropriate accommodation. 

Remarks:

-           The ads on the Byres Road also  focus on the University of Glasgow district.

-           Most of the accommodations opportunities were already taken. It goes really quickly! We called 20 numbers: 10 were already taken and 5 didn’t answer. The ads are “updated” every day at 4 P.M.

-          60% of the ads were about flat sharing with 2, 3, 4 and more people. So if you’ve the opportunity to find international flat mates, just do it!

If you’ve more questions about the accommodation, please ask.