Just on the road back to Cambridge from Milton Keynes again. This weekend the major focus was trying to find my partner a new place to live - last week she went from being the only person in her house to being a bit of a cog-in-the-machine - a Latvian family of around 8 people moved in suddenly with no prior warning from the landlord! (I thought it was a bit fishy that the landlord had repainted a couple of rooms - he isn't exactly the most utilitarian of people . . .) So we lined up on Friday trying to find places - http://uk.easyroommate.com seemed to be the best/most reliable bet - and went to three viewings to try and desperately find a place.
First room was nice - double room in a detached house - but quite expensive at £370 not including bills. (for reference, my partner currently pays £300 inc.bills - wanting to move to a nicer area means that she had to up her rent a little) The housemate was nice (and actually British!) as he was a support worker for autistic people, so he had that natural caring/friendly streak. The price was a shame really - if it had been reasonable (£370 inc bills) then I probably would have pushed her to see that. Second room was cheap (£320 inc bills) but it was in a small terraced house that looked like it didn't belong - the estate was all semi-detached and this house had been kind of "wedged" in between the two semis on either side. Both housemates were Polish and the room/house looked a little worse for wear.
The final house (which she took in the end) was a "tardis house" - looked quite small from outside but then suddenly expanded when you walked into it! The garage is open (that probably makes little sense) and has a landing above it, so it is a 4-bedroom end terrace house. It's got a large kitchen and bathroom (even with a jacuzzi!) and a nice conservatory & living room. To top it off there is a very large garden and even a gas BBQ for when we want to have a bit of a grill (but can't be bothered for the whole hog of heating charcoals). The live-in landlord is a ski instructor - handy as my partner wants to learn to ski - who has been divorced for a few months so he now has extra room in his house (unfortunately).Slightly expensive at £370/mo inc bills but easily worth the extra for the quality of the house - very clean and tidy too as the landlord lives there.
The whole episode reminded me of just how stressful it is to find a new place. You look on the internet and it looks like there are thousands of places but by the time you filter them all out, you're left with 3 or 4 (if you're lucky!) places, none of which match your criteria perfectly. You then have to find a way of contacting people (sneaky room mate websites usually need one of you to sign up to it) and have a prod around auspiciously. I suppose we were lucky in that MK has no student population - this removes a lot of the volatility in the market and means that you're not facing as much competition. On the flip side there are lots of young couples so there is demand from that segment in the market, but they will tend to look for a 1-bed flat / 2-bed house as opposed to a room in a shared house.
Thankfully all out of the way so she can have a good rest next weekend - no more 4am wake ups from the loud children & dogs! For me it is presentation time next week and completing my CPGS essay (first year PhD report essentially) - things will suddenly become much more free after the next couple of weeks.
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