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Emma Daniels
Journalism Student
Hey, it’s Emma here, your resident caffeine-powered journalism student, back again with more tales of student life at the University of Lincoln. If you’re a first-year who’s about to start house hunting for next year, let me give you one piece of advice that could save your sanity: don’t wait until after Christmas. Trust me, I learned this one the hard way.
Let’s rewind to last year when I started thinking about finding my second-year house. My coursemates were all saying, “Don’t worry, Emma, there’s loads of time. We’ll sort it after Christmas.” But I couldn’t shake this gut feeling that I should start looking earlier. And thank the student gods I did, because it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
You know that feeling you get after Christmas break when your student loan has taken a hit from one too many VKs and your new boots that you definitely didn’t need? That’s the same time most students finally realise they need to start house hunting. Suddenly, every letting agent’s phone is ringing off the hook, group chats are exploding, and the best houses have already been snapped up by the more organised lot who started early.
I saw it happen to my mates. They thought they’d be fine waiting until January. But by then, the good houses were gone and they were left fighting over the leftovers. And let me tell you, some of those “leftovers” were not pretty.
I decided to get ahead of the game and started my search in November. I was determined to find somewhere decent, with a nice kitchen, a proper living room, and an ensuite bathroom. I wanted a house that felt like a home, not a shoebox.
That’s when the fun really started. I booked a bunch of viewings with different agencies around Lincoln, and honestly, it was like starring in my own episode of “Escape the Nightmare Rental.”
Let’s start with Cloud Lettings. Don’t get me wrong, their staff were lovely, but some of the houses they showed me were… well, let’s just say I saw one where the kitchen was smaller than my wardrobe and the living room smelled suspiciously like last year’s takeaway.
Then there was Lincoln Diggs. They had a house that looked decent in the photos, but when we got there, the bedroom window didn’t close properly and the bathroom had a permanent damp patch on the ceiling. Plus, it was miles from the High Street, which meant a 20-minute walk to get to Tesco for my meal deals.
WESP was next. They showed me a house that was so dark it felt like a vampire den. The living room had one single lamp in the corner, and the carpet looked like it had survived about fifty house parties.
Lighthouse Lettings showed me a place that had so many extension leads I was worried the whole place might go up in flames. I swear every room had at least three plugs hanging off a dodgy multi-socket adaptor.
By this point, I was feeling like I might never find a house that didn’t come with its own horror story.
That’s when I found Student Housing. I’d heard about them from a friend who’d rented with them the year before, and she couldn’t stop raving about how good they were. I booked a viewing and, honestly, it felt like I’d stepped into a different world.
The house they showed me had a bright, modern kitchen with enough space for all my housemates to actually cook at the same time. The living room had a proper sofa, not just a plastic chair from the back of a lecture hall. My bedroom was huge, with an ensuite bathroom that didn’t smell of damp, and the whole place had bills included, so no surprise costs every month.
The cherry on top? It even had a little beer garden out back where we could hang fairy lights and chill after a night out. And the best part? It was close to everything: the High Street, Superbull, Tesco, you name it.
Fast forward to January and my group chat was full of panic messages from my coursemates who’d left it too late. One of them ended up in a place where the living room doubled as a bike storage unit. Another had to walk 30 minutes to get to lectures every morning because the only place left was practically in Narnia.
Meanwhile, I was sorted with my cosy house, making memories with my best mates and feeling smug every time I heard another horror story.
Looking back, I’m so grateful I didn’t wait until after Christmas to find my house. Starting early gave me the pick of the best places, let me actually enjoy the house-hunting process, and saved me from months of stress and drama.
If I can give you one piece of advice, it’s this: don’t be like my coursemates who waited too long and ended up in the damp-smelling, vampire-den leftovers. Start your search now, and make sure you go with an agency that actually cares about students. For me, Student Housing made all the difference.
✅ Start house hunting in November, not after Christmas
✅ Look at more than one agency, but trust your gut when a place feels right
✅ Don’t settle for the horror houses
✅ Bills included = no stress about surprise costs
✅ Student Housing = the best decision I made
Looking for your perfect house? Check out Student Housing Lincoln and start making those second-year memories. Trust me, you’ll thank yourself later.
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Journalism Student
Hey there! I’m Emma, a second-year journalism student at the University of Lincoln
