Students (or student minded people) In Here Please!!

Hello :)

We've done our market research and the area is crying out for what we're setting up! Whoop! Our pricing matches "top end" current student halls which have shared toilets and communal kitchens between 10 students. The furniture used in the halls are not that great (cheap MFI looking stuff) and the general feel is very bland.

We're offering premium studio bedsits in the city centre with bars, clubs, tescos, iceland etc within minutes walk. Cinematic screening, gym, study areas, laundrette... everything will be there :)

Prices vary from £120 a week to £150 a week (£150 will have fridges in rooms and kettle/microwave oven and be large enough for sofa and two study desks - it's for couples).

For all inclusive, bills paid so no arguing about splitting costs etc we're either exactly priced at so-called competitor rates and even shared houses which are not the best of shapes. We're anywhere between £20-£50 more expensive than some horrific student lets which are miles out from the city and the uni itself.

Considering there are over 10,000 students... we need to pitch to 30 of them a year. We're pretty certain with our marketing skills behind us and research we're going to be aok :)

The look we're going for (minus kitchenettes and plus double beds) is similar to these:

Small-Kids-Bedroom-Design-Ideas-with-Drawers-under-Bed-and-Study-Desk.jpg


Red-Bed-with-Black-Drawers-and-Built-Un-Cupboard-with-Open-Shelves-and-Study-Desk.jpg


Yellow-and-White-Color-Scheme-in-Kids-Bedroom-Design-Ideas-with-Bed-with-Drawers-and-Study-Desk.jpg


s-bedroom-5.jpg


j19qs020.jpg


(latter one is a bit garish tbh but you get the idea)

So yeh. Just need to make sure the students have *everything* they need!

All tenancies are organised separately so no worries there either :)
 
Out of interest where is this? I'm assuming Bristol given your location however if that's right (and you're trying to attract UoB students) then you're a bit late to the game.

Where roughly is this housing? I haven't seen any new developments in the "catchment" area for UoB student housing. Not so sure about UWE on the other hand.

(P.S. I'm a UoB student).
 
If you're going for a premium feel and you want to maintain it i'd say put in a dishwasher, anyone's house/flat i've been in with a dishwasher is cleaner which is obviously better for you for mould/rats etc.
I'd also say a tumble drier, if you're looking at other luxury flats and yours has a tumble drier it's a good selling point, not to mention if you show people around in the future and there's loads of clothes driers, they're a nightmare and if you're limited on space it's a bigger factor also for parents who will be more than likely forking out for it want their son/daughter to have some ease.
No locks on cupboards, you live with these people they might steal some tea bags or sugar but the amount of time's I ring my flat mates asking to borrow something which is always no problem and if there was a lock on the cupboard it would suck.
Big socialising sofa's good for chatting and socialising, center the living room around talking to people and holding parties, TV is good but parties are better is what i'd say.
Wooden floors are easier to clean for inevitable spillages, big bins and also in all rooms.
 
Make sure the toilet seat is fitted properly and doesn't slam down, potentially trapping your Johnson.

This is the real #1 gripe, not the fridge
 
When I was a student I didn't go in halls because it was expensive, I found the cheapest room I could and lived there. Double bed, large desk and decent kitchen, all I cared about.

What I would advise you do OP is big rooms with double beds and quality desks and office chairs - I mean professional office gear. They will spend a long time behind that desk so it pays to buy good quality stuff.

Whatever you do though, don't expect them to look after it, especially posh students who have never worked a day in their life and have mummy and daddy to bail them out. The posh kids treated their digs like **** when I was a student.
 
If you have an office on site or similar then free printing facilitys and free binding are small things that go along way. Our landlord has mini fridges in his office with coke and other soft drinks and sweets and biscuits all the time, people often went down to the office for a chat and just to chill with staff. This made a much better connection with landlord and made sure this place was booked up 2 years in advance as people rarely left till their final year, also once setup make sure things like washing machines and fridges if broken are replaced quickly my landlord had a few of each "spare" and would instantly change them out then try and fix/replace the broken ones after. Its small things like this that gets the word of mouth out and will make sure you have a line of people to rent to.
 
I not sure two fridge freezers will be enough. My share of 6 people had two, which was comfortable, but lacking a bit for freezer space. Make sure everyone at least has one freezer draw and one fridge shelf with room height wise for a loaf of bread at least.
 
As a student, you stock up on all the frozen food possible :p But to echo the comment above, two fridge freezers between 6 of us was ok, but we still struggled with freezer space.

Also, our landlord filled our fridge up with beer before we moved in. That felt pretty premium to me.
 
benjo said:
As a student, you stock up on all the frozen food possible :p But to echo the comment above, two fridge freezers between 6 of us was ok, but we still struggled with freezer space.

Also, our landlord filled our fridge up with beer before we moved in. That felt pretty premium to me.
Click to expand...

It depends, I never did but then I learned to cook from about age 8 so I had somewhat of an advantage in running a house compared to most students, and I wasn't the only one like that.
 
+1 on the Washing Machine, Tumble Dryer, Dishwasher. They made an influence on our choice of student house last year :).
Also internet - we checked for Virgin Media or BT Infinity coverage before signing the contract. WiFi was naff in our house, so we used powerlines with extra APs… ethernet would have been nice to have :).
Don't get the comment about no carpets above - we had brand new carpets in our house and left them immaculate (no smokers and we hired a Rug Doctor before moving out).
Haven't seen garden mentioned - we had a small garden which was ok, but there were no tools in the shed. So to cut the grass or trim the bushes we had to borrow tools off one guys parents.

One last thing: Car parking. A couple of us had cars. Although it was a residents parking area so we had to fork out a few quid, we checked before moving in that there wasn't any waiting list or limit on the number of cars we could have registered in the household. One thing the landlord could have done to make it a bit more premium would have been to include the residents permit cost in the rent, or just to give us a pile of visitors daily scratch tokens to tide us over until the permits arrived in the post.
 
How do people afford these huge rents, i never paid more then £70/week with all bills included and that still took all my loan!
 
The misses pays £65p/w for her uni digs.

Insurance on top and tuition = loan gone.

On saying that though, I expect you'll get people to fill them it's only 10 rooms (?) and some can always afford location location.
 
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