You'll want to get your accommodation sorted before you land in the UK. The last thing you want is to turn up and have nowhere to stay.

Your first port of call should be your university itself. They generally offer guarantees to house all students who apply before a certain date.

Most students either live in uni accommodation (called 'halls of residence', or 'halls' for short) or rent a room from a private landlord.

Living in halls is best for your first year of study, as it removes the trouble of trying to find a suitable room elsewhere. Some unis have halls specifically for international students to help you make friends easily.

These are either self-catered (meaning you have access to a shared kitchen to cook your own meals) or catered (meaning your meals are provided at a canteen). If you're looking to save some money, self-catered is by far the cheaper option.

Unlike American universities, most rooms in halls and private housing are single occupancy. This means you have a whole room to yourself.

If you're not interested in halls, and you'd prefer to do the house hunt yourself, head to our student letting agents directory to find houses in your area. You should also read our guide to viewing student houses, so you know what to watch out for.

And if you're not sure where you want to live, check out our guide comparing student halls and student houses.

UK is an expensive place to live. Rentals are high, and landlords require long term leases. Long term leases are not a problem as a student would be willing to take a 52 week or even longer lease, but some of the nice properties might be off market for students. If they are not off market for individual students, they would be off market for student groups. Landlords particularly family owned houses are quite particular about keeping their property clean, low disturbances, etc and sometimes they believe students might not be the best fit for their property. So it might take a while for you to find a suitable house. And then be prepared to pay a broker as most lettings would happen through a registered agent. And it does not work the way it does in India, that once you see a property you can speak to the landlord directly. Finding a house or ar apartment and then closing a lease for a year or two might not be that easy. Also, the rentals would be in the range of GBP 200- 400 per week (UK has a preference for weekly pricing) which might be a bit high for individual students, unless there are others to split the rent and share the other expenses. In my next writeup I shall outline other options available to students. Any questions please post and I shall be happy to respond to the best of my ability.

The best option for a student is finding campus accomodation per the first response to this thread. However, campus accomodation is on first come first served basis and being limited and for other reasons a student might chose to live off campus but within reasonable distance from the campus. A student has atleast four options:

1. Take an apartment or independent house either independently or with a group of students. 

2. Take a shared accomodation already occupied by similar students or working people. Finding this might be difficult for a student landing in UK initially, though not so difficult once you settle in for a few weeks and get to know a few people and they almost always seem to have a solution to this. It is the first few weeks or 2-3 months which are the most difficult. 

3. Opt for a bed and breakfast or other hotel. While regular hotels are expensive and even the cheapest ones would go for upwards of 60 pounds per night per room (so about GBP 1800 per month) which kind of breaks the bank for people like us. B&B are slightly cheaper and if you are lucky you would find one around 30-40 pounds per night, and at 30 pounds per night for a long stay the rentals might appear reasonable. 

4.   Student accomodation. I can see atleast 20 aggregators in the market who offer specialised student accomodation for part or the entire duration of the program. These range from 70 pounds per week shared by other students or perhaps working executives, and at first glance appears quite lucrative. The chepest ones would have 3 people sharing the same room with shared bathroom and lounge,etc. These are generally large buildings which have been constructed for lettting out as shared accomodation for students, and the brands are quite big so risk is low. However, not many students would like to be boxed in with other people they dont know, so it is best to take such accomodation initially for a few weeks and not the entire duration of the program. You can always extend the stay if you really like and generally these large buildings have some vacancy at all times. 

One final note, if you can organise as a group before your flight from your country, it might appear the best solution as you get to live with other students you might know. We can help. We have a software which aggregates location wise student data for each intake which you can fill and if sufficient number of people for one intake in one location turn up on our software, we can negotiate a better deal for you. A deal where similar students can live together nicely and which would have an easier approval quotient with your parents or guardians. There is no fee so you can register and leave your details. You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. All the best.