What your accommodation really costs
Two students paying identical rent can face maintenance requirements over a thousand pounds apart, purely because of who they pay it to. This works out the whole contract, and how much of it counts.
Where will you live?
Who you pay matters as much as how much — it changes the funds you have to prove for your visa.
Published rents for June 2026 give the starting figure.
Your university publishes its hall rates — there is no official figure we could use instead.
Typical for this type: 40 weeks.
Add your weekly rent to see the total
University halls or private halls?
Private halls are often the nicer room. University halls are usually the cheaper total, and there is one difference between them that no amount of comparison shopping makes up for.
| University halls | Private halls | |
|---|---|---|
| Counts toward your visa fundsST 12.4 | Yes — up to £1,529 comes off the money you must prove | No. Nothing paid to a private operator reduces it |
| Contract length | Often the teaching year only, around 40 weeks | Usually the full year, around 51 weeks |
| Bills | Normally included | Normally included |
| Rooms | Varies widely, from shared bathrooms to en-suite | Usually en-suite, often studios, often newer |
| Getting a place | Many guarantee first-year international students, but deadlines are tied to firming your offer | Book independently of your offer, and usually later |
| Paying | Usually instalments across the year | May want a UK guarantor, or a term or a year upfront if you cannot provide one |
Only the first row is a rule; it is quoted from the Immigration Rules and linked. The rest is what usually happens and varies by provider — check the contract in front of you rather than this table.
The trap worth naming: a private operator that asks an international student for a year upfront is asking for money that does nothing to reduce the funds you must separately prove for your visa. Paid to your university, the same sum would cut that requirement by up to £1,529.
Find the real rates
There is no official published series for hall rates, so rather than guess we will take you to the source. Universities list theirs down to the room type.
Private halls
The larger operators — Unite Students, iQ, Student Roost and similar — publish weekly rates by city on their own sites. We have no arrangement with any of them, so we are not sending you to one over another.
The rule almost nobody knows
The Immigration Rules let you deduct accommodation you have already paid for from the money you must prove you hold — but only when it was paid to your student sponsor, and only up to £1,529. Pay a private halls operator or a landlord the same amount and it reduces the requirement by nothing at all.
If the applicant has paid a deposit to the student sponsor for accommodation arranged by the sponsor, this deposit (up to a maximum of £1529) can be offset against the funds required in ST 12.3.
The second thing worth checking before you sign is the contract length. Most private tenancies run about 51 weeks, while university halls often cover the teaching year only. At the same weekly rent, the longer contract can cost more than a thousand pounds extra for weeks you may not even be in the country.
The deposit is capped by law. A landlord may require up to five weeks’ rent where the annual rent is below £50,000, or six weeks between £50,000 and £100,000, and a holding deposit may not exceed one week’s rent. Student rents sit far below the threshold, so the five-week cap is the one that applies. If you are asked for more than that, it is not lawful.