Due to being on a year abroad I was already anxious about signing a house for 23/24, considering the increase in bills. Because of this myself and my group (all of us on a year abroad) signed very early in September, before this housing rush. Having witnessed it on social media and heard from friends back in Durham, I am glad that we signed so early, particularly as I have seen an increase in prices of properties that we considered in a matter of weeks. However, that doesn’t change the fact that we shouldn’t have had to be in such a position. The stress of signing so early put a massive strain on us while we were navigating living in new countries and settling in generally. Whilst this is nowhere near comparable to the horror stories I’m hearing from Durham, and we are fortunate to have a house sorted for next year and at a somewhat reasonable price (£145 for Neville’s Cross bills inclusive), it is not acceptable that we had to move so fast and sign without being able to see the property. In an ideal world, we would have wanted to view properties in the break between our placements around December and January, but it quickly became apparent that that would not be possible.

Very stressful with little information available about necessary steps in order to secure a property. Created a competitive environment with people itching to overtake others in order to secure one of the few properties available. Also, somewhat discriminatory towards those whose parents or guardians do not own property and therefore struggle to find a guarantor. The only options include paying all the money upfront or paying an extra £42 a month with an external company, both of which seem counterintuitive to supporting the individual.

I’m on a year abroad in Canada at the minute and was looking for a house for my 4th year (with a group of people all on years abroad.) As such we couldn’t physically join the 14 hour queues outside estate agents and despite ringing constantly, emailing for weeks prior and submitting request after request online, we couldn’t compete with the people there in person. The one we did secure a contract for was £189 per week without bills - I am fortunate enough that my dad is able to pay my rent, but he could not afford this, and I didn’t want to get a job and interfere with my studies for my final year so we had to give up the house. I am in a privileged position and even I couldn’t afford housing - we are genuinely considering commuting from Newcastle or Darlington. You call yourself an inclusive university and yet how can you expect your students to pay more than tuition for accommodation alone. Furthermore, this extortionate accommodation is not even nice! Even Gilesgate and Neville’s cross are ridiculously priced and often for houses that are falling apart and laced with black mould. You need to do something about this. The university needs to stop admitting more and more students every year with no capacity to accommodate them. There needs to be caps on how much prices can rise per year. I’ve read that the estate agents discussed their prices so they could rise them equally - this whole situation is appalling, how can you justify poorer students unable to find housing especially in this cost of living crisis?? Quite frankly I think I will have to decide whether to eat or pay rent next year - and I come from quite a privileged background, I went to private school etc. I can’t imagine how awful it must be for lower income students at the minute. Honestly, I imagine anyone without millions will struggle this year - especially the ones who only just don’t qualify for the grants. We still haven’t found a house for next year and I’m genuinely considering flying back from Canada (8 hour flight, probably about £750 return) to try and reason with estate agents, but I think there is genuinely nothing under £200 per week left. What if people had disabilities which meant they couldn’t walk from Gilesgate or Neville’s Cross every day? I am appalled by this whole situation, and something HAS to be done.

Every day in lectures and breaks I looked for accommodation for me and my friends. However, we all failed. I stood in the line at Harringtons, the prices were too expensive for me and my friends, so we got nothing out of it.

Me and my flatmate were so panicked looking for houses. We didn't want to go into it blindly and so were booking viewings, but every single time we’d go and look at them they would have already gone. We now are having to live with 3 random strangers we have never met because we have no other choice. Our listing lied too- we were told we'd have all bills included and when we got the contract we do not.

I had to leave university for a week because of the death of a family member, and by the time I got back it felt like there were no houses left. Before I left no one was looking at houses and by the time I got back my current flatmates had signed on a house and the group I am looking with couldn’t find anything. Houses are so much more expensive than they have been in the past and loans haven’t increased, so we’ve accepted that we will likely be living in college next year, even though that isn’t our first choice. Seeing pictures of students sleeping outside estate agents on national news when I wasn't in Durham so couldn't do anything to help my friends was very overwhelming.

One month after I moved to a different country and meeting so many new people, I was greeted with the task to find a house in which I would live a year later. Where was I supposed to look? Who would I be living with? What are the options? What is a good price per week? Why is it this early? Where do I want to live? Why is everyone freaking out? These were only a few of the questions I asked myself before I finally received the first answers to some of them. And at that point the best houses were already gone. I wished I had received more support in finding a house, but even more so would I wish I didn’t have to look for houses a year before I would live there. This can’t be possible and makes freshers feel so insecure and anxious about their situation. Very disappointing.

I’m in my first year, and we started viewing houses after our first week of lectures and then signed by the end of our second week, meaning I’ve committed to living with people for a year that I’d only known for under 3 weeks at the point of signing. Even this early on houses were going very quickly so we would book to view multiple houses and by the time we showed up some of them had already gone. In our viewing we saw 5 houses then went to the estate agents straight afterwards and said which we would sign for but asked if we could have another viewing before we signed because we’d viewed so many that they’d all merged into one, and we wanted some idea of who would be in which room before signing. They refused this request, but we obviously had to sign anyway as we would lose the house otherwise (we viewed this one at about 2pm and the students currently living in it said we were the 5th tour that day already). Also, in one of the houses we viewed we couldn’t see the rooms because people in the house had covid but this one went a couple of days after which makes us think they must have signed for it without seeing the rooms. Luckily, we did manage to get a house in an area we wanted that was one of the cheapest on the market (though still very expensive!), and it sounds like we had a much less stressful experience than most of our friends, as even a week later people were struggling to get anything at a reasonable price close enough to walk to lectures and kept thinking they’d secured houses then being told they hadn’t. I was really worried about signing so early and ending up not liking the people that I would be living with, but now I’m so glad that I did sign when I did as we avoided many of the stressful experiences lots of our friends had.

As I am an Erasmus Student Durham University, and my college didn’t offer me a college accommodation. Especially as an incoming exchange student where you’ll know during end of May if you got accepted for the upcoming academic year or not, finding a house by that time is difficult. I am seeing a lot of people been struggling with finding accommodation for 23/24. I have seen a massive queue in front of a student agency which is crazy. When I came to Durham I thought the prices were quite expensive, but the prices got a lot higher for next year. Completely insane. Especially when a lot of student houses are in a bad condition.

It’s so difficult finding a house let alone one I can actually afford for next year; every house has gone so fast and the ones that are left are either too expensive or don’t have the rooms for four people. We have cut our group down to two people because it seems there are only two bedroom houses left at a reasonable price. The websites aren’t getting updated fast enough so every time we think we have found a house and call the estate agents it already gone, or we just don’t get through to anyone as so many people are calling them all the time. It’s frustrating and getting ridiculous at this point

We signed a house quite early after viewing it. The price advertised was £125 with bills. After all 4 tenants had signed the contract we got an email from the agent saying there had been a mistake and that the house was advertised at the wrong price. It was supposed to be listed at £145 with bills. By this point most estate agents had already released all their properties so we had very few options left. So, after a bit of back and forth the agent offered us £125 without bills which we took. Overall, we were very disappointed with this experience, and it feels like we may have been taken advantage of given the hostility of the market this year.

I had to miss lectures to go to a letting agency and find a house. We signed without having seen it due to the rush and were given a viewing the next day. We then got a call saying the house had already been letted despite us signing for it, and by that time we couldn’t and still haven’t found a house.

I finally thought we'd managed to sign a house, so we stopped looking only to be told the landlord isn't proceeding with it and we had to start all over again.

The time to sign the contract was reduced with no notice from 48hrs to 24hrs and then when my guarantor failed to sign the document after mere days, they rang me to say I had to get them to sign by midnight or we could lose the house (that we'd already paid deposits for).

I arranged to rent a house with a landlord, but as I emailed to enquire about why the deposit was so high (above 5 weeks rent) they cancelled the tenancy and ignored all further communications, leaving me without a house. It seems like some landlords are trying to charge above what is legal for a deposit, in order to make maximum profit from this crisis by keeping the deposit afterwards.

My landlord took two biddings for the house we signed- the other group doubled our offer (£110 to £220 a week) in order to sign the house despite us having a reservation with him.

I missed 4/6 of my lectures last week, in order to house hunt. I did none of my reading, but it is the only way we could've secured the house over our heads for next year. We found a house and queued at 8.20 am in order to sign for it. Another group in the estate agents were after the same house, but we had a full group, so they gave it to us. They told us it was available, and we signed the details form. Later that same day, they informed us someone had already signed for it and offered us a worse house on the same street at the same price. We considered ourselves back at square one. We spent all of Thursday and then Friday morning frantically looking again and found a flat which was advertised as bills included. We have paid them £1000 total in advance rent already, and today we received the tenancy agreement. They have decided that gas and electricity do not come under "bills included", which adds potentially another £20 onto the weekly cost. That is another £1000 to budget for next year. We feel incredibly misled. At every turn we have been fleeced of our money and taken advantage of and been failed by estate agents who we are forced to rely on. This has been one of the most stressful things I have ever gone through. My friend, who hasn't struggled with anxiety in years has had a sudden resurgence of severe panic attacks as a direct consequence of this situation. I had been told it was bad here, but nothing could've prepared me for this.

Four friends and I reserved a house, and all signed a form, our head tenant also paid a deposit. We did not hear from the estate agent for almost a week until we were told that the landlord of that house had signed it off to some other tenants without telling anyone. We have now been left to find another house with the estate agent having no other properties to offer us and not offering any help other than putting us on a waiting list in case anyone backs out of signing. There are no houses left that fit within our price range, so we are having to stay somewhere that is not affordable for some of us in the group, with most of us being working class and with little to no access to financial assistance from family or the University.

I had only been in Durham for two weeks when my friends started signing houses - with no knowledge of the area, the market or even who would be a good roommate, I was completely lost. I spent an afternoon going around different estate agents and steadily getting more and more panicked - we ended up paying a deposit before realising the house had four bedrooms, we could only see three on the floor plan. This house fell through after several sleepless nights and so many missed lectures. My friend and I developed a system where one of us would go and take notes while the other phoned every estate agent we could. We ended up signing an overpriced flat with three strangers after going through several different groups, a process that’s terrifying and stressful. I’m already dreading next year. Even now we have a house sorted, the stress hasn’t gone away. I’ve been physically ill, struggling to engage with lectures and get all my homework in on time. None of my friends in any other universities have even been looking yet, but this has been an all consuming part of my Durham experience.

I set out attempting to find a house for the modest rate of either £130 pppw bills inc. Or £110 pppw bills excl. In any other city besides London this would seem a reasonable ask. All the properties that met these budget conditions were snapped up before I could even arrive for a viewing, by students who hadn't even viewed the property in person. Some were still listed on sturents but upon contacting the estate agent or landlord I would be informed they were let days ago. This wasted my time and made it difficult to find viable properties having to manually filter through all the defunct listings. This search began a couple of weeks before I even arrived at Durham and lasted into week 4 of term.
During this time, I was dedicating little to no time to my reading or assignments. I had a few summatives which I made sure to do but for the most part I was not submitting my formative work. This is due to the fact I was spending all my time either searching for houses or completely dissociating because of the overwhelming stress about housing. My attention in lectures also began to suffer, as did my diet and sleep pattern. I was fortunate enough to be reached out to by a friend whose private landlord had a 2-bedroom flat available for next year for £95 pppw bills excl. which was well within my budget, and I have signed that with another friend. The housing stress is over.
I am one of the lucky ones, many students are still on the stressful search, particularly those with a lower budget like me and many will be pressured to sign a property which is more than they can afford. I experienced this in my current year of study and was pressured into signing a house which is more than I can reasonably afford. I pray for all my fellow students are still on the search and desperately hope you find somewhere you can afford to live.

So stressful that is affecting my academic studies! And entire week of only thinking about my housing situation for next year, that even during my seminars and lectures I was looking for any affordable houses for next year. It was chaos.

I was a Frep this year, and I was walking by the SU a few days ago when I saw one of my freshers sitting on a wall with his face in his hands. When I asked him what was up, he told me that he was really stressed about housing, so stressed that he had to leave his seminar halfway through because he could not concentrate. This is not something that freshers (or any years) should have to go through, especially not within the first month of being in Durham. It is abhorrent and unacceptable for this to continue, and some action must be taken to ensure that this does not ever happen again.

I have felt totally blindsided by the whole situation, and incredibly let down by the Uni. I’ve been unable to complete assignments and do my lecture readings due to having to spend so much time at estate agents asking after houses that are way beyond what I’m going to be able to afford. The stress of this has been incredibly difficult to manage and is taking a significant toll on my mental health. I still don’t have a house for next year and am struggling to see how I will be able to remain in Durham. I feel that the pressure to find a house in such a limited market with what feels like no support or help has so far ruined my time at uni. Durham Uni has a duty of care to its students that it is simply not fulfilling.

This is my third year dealing with the housing stress, and it's just got crazier each year. In my first year I signed in January, giving me time to find the group I wanted to live with. In both years since, this would've been unheard of. I've seen houses in Gilesgate go in 12 hours which just makes everything terrifying. Honestly it’s just made me feel sick and struggle to focus on my degree as I've been so worried about housing. I've found somewhere now but feel awful for Freshers under this pressure and am very relieved this should be the last time I have to deal with this!

I thought I would have time to decide whether I wanted to do a masters at Durham Uni next year, but the housing crisis pushed me to make a decision asap otherwise I'd be left without affordable housing. I'm already a vulnerable student who will become homeless after I graduate unless I find a job with accommodation. A masters would usually secure another year of accommodation at student prices. But the prices of next year’s accommodation are not financially viable for me even with a Durham masters being cheaper as an alumni than a masters elsewhere. I already work 20 hours a week part-time and was hoping to reduce my hours to have more time to focus on my dissertation but if I want to avoid going into my overdraft next year this will not be possible at all. I really feel like the housing crisis is pushing me out of being able to afford a masters at Durham at all. I used to love Durham but now I can't help but resent the Uni for letting this happen.

I was the first of my flatmates to really want to search, and I ended up joining my long time friends to rent with next year. This unfortunately fell through as multiple people dropped out for various reasons (mainly price of living) we found a four bedroom for £155pppw which last year was a three bedroom for £135pppw and that fourth bedroom was literally a cupboard. This left two of us with no group to live with. All our flatmates had already signed contracts at this point, so we were left going on Instagram asking random people whether there was space in their groups and putting up calls for groups on our story. We found a group of three and managed to get a website to put a holding fee on a flat at 11pm Sunday night, which we were going to view on the Monday morning. Come Monday morning, we get a call saying the flat we put a holding fee was taken earlier on Sunday, but others in the block were available. We decided to get back to them after we had viewed the flats to see what one we'd like. When we called back later (approx. 2 hours later) to change what flat we wanted, every flat (around 10/11) except one flat had been signed for. This meant we ended up signing for a flat we hadn't seen - but it ended up ok as it was quite nice.
During this period, I missed 5 days’ worth of lectures either being at estate agents trying to find somewhere or too stressed and depressed to go to them. When my mum came down, I ended up breaking down so badly from stress that she almost made me drop out.
When I contacted college welfare about this, all I got was a "housing is stressful, I hope you feel better soon" which made me feel even worse.

I decided who I wanted to share a house with in about week 3 and spent the rest of the week looking at houses, deciding on a shortlist of available houses over that weekend. On Monday afternoon, I skipped a couple of lectures to phone estate agents about the houses that were listed as available: not a single house we found was available despite them still being on sturents and their own websites. Soul crushing as it took a lot to even get myself to a position to try phoning estate agents as my anxiety flares up when using the phone.
We continued looking but were completely priced out.
Last night we found another house that was suitable, so this morning I met some friends to go to the estate agents at 9.00, missing a lecture in the process. We were informed we would have to view the property first, which we did only to return to find the house gone.

Last year, I was placed in Ernest place after having to transfer out of the Hild Bede site. I was isolated from my college, and as I arrived late and barely knew anyone there. I would attend my lectures and seminars, and that was the extent to which I interacted with any other students last year. It was a forty minute walk, and this discouraged me from attending any society events that could have enabled me to make friends, primarily because it was a long walk and I did not feel safe attending these events as they mainly happened in the evenings. I failed to find any housemates, and my parents and I decided that I should stay in private halls, midway through Epiphany term. Now, I am in the same position of isolation, but have been priced out of many private hall options. My college has not confirmed accommodation availability, and I am pretty much relying on them doing so. My parents have suggested that I commute from south London and stay in hotels but in my final year I know this would have a severe impact on my mental health and academic performance. This has had a severe impact on me mentally, has left me feeling more isolated and has made me contemplate dropping out.

We thought we had a house in the viaduct for £110pp a week through a private landlord and we were all ready to sign, however an email went to the landlord’s junk mail (which he didn’t check) and by the time we found out two days later he’d let the house to someone else. Now we’re paying £199pp a week instead for a house in the same location and although we will get by it means a bleak year for us with all discretionary spending kept to a minimum.

Sleeping on the side of the street in the cold and not even getting the house because it was £200+ pw. Feeling like I’m being priced out of my degree.

Horrible. I was paying a ridiculous price for a house that isn’t worth the money- with two of the rooms not even having a desk! It was the only house that was left under £150, despite it only being a week since most house with bills and rent prices going up next year. I’m going to really struggle to pay my rent, I’m already working alongside my degree and my parents aren’t in a situation where they would be able to help me.

The house I’m currently in is increasing by £40 a week next year. I chose to live far out in Gilesgate because it was a cheaper option. My housemates want to stay here, and they can afford it, but it’s out of my budget and it’s making things very awkward.

I simply can’t afford it. I’m trying to get a placement so thank goodness won’t be needing one next year but am terrified for the following year. My grandmother has offered me her little caravan if I can find somewhere to park it - this is my best option.

As a fresher I obviously wasn’t expecting to have to look for houses so soon, but we saw another group signing early in October and started to look ourselves soon after. We booked several viewings with Loc8me only to find many houses had already gone as we were competing with second and third years. This encouraged us to speed up the process and we eventually found an ideal and relatively well priced houses compared to the rest of the market. The house price (in Neville’s Cross) had risen from £125 the previous year to £145 this year, but compared to many other properties we thought this was reasonable for a 4 bed with bills included. This was the weekend before the housing release of most other agents but we were so thankful to have got it all sorted before.

As a student from a working class background, I cannot afford most of the housing on offer for next year, the ones I find that are in my budget, I enquire and find the properties are already taken.

I am from a low-income family in South London - so coming here has already been hard enough to adapt to the University and the general area. It has pressured me into forming groups with people who I honestly don't know well enough. I am living with two people I have only met twice. Durham has an illusion of wanting to provide college accommodation for 1st years going into 2nd year as an alternative, but they don't- it's highly limited which is frustrating considering the student housing market fiasco.
The limited number of houses available for students due to the additional student intake is alarming and if they continue to do this for the following cohort it will only become worse. This will hinder the reputation of Durham - sadly - who is still yet to accept blame for this. I can't afford any house here and it is up to £180.00+ a week and it is extremely limited.
Durham needs to own up and find a better solution with college accommodation.