There are more beds than students in Sheffield, yet landlords and letting agencies are still putting the pressure on people to sign up earlier and earlier each year. It is now at the point that Freshers are being targeted only weeks after they’ve arrived at University, and so something has to change...

If everyone held on and waited until later in the year to sign their housing contracts then noone would feel pressured into signing before they were ready.

Because of the officer elections I didn't know if I was going to be in Sheffield this year or not. I had to wait until the results in March and didn't sign a house until April. Before this I'd always signed in December and I was shocked to find out how many houses were still available. There were absolutely loads of 4 and 3 person houses and becuase landlords were so desperate to rent them out it was really easy to haggle over price. This year I'm paying £45 a week whereas last year it was £68, safe to say waiting till April was the best decision I could have made. If your looking for an 8 or 9 person house you may need to look a little earlier but if its 5,4 or 3 person houses you're after there's no need to rush.

I was in the same position as Amy this year and was worried that looking for a house in March would have been a nightmare, but it really wasn't. I used the university's lost of registered properties and found a house in the location I wanted.

In my first year I just didn't feel ready to sign for a house only weeks after I'd moved to Sheffield. I waited until my January exams had finished to start looking and I had lots of choice. I think it's crazy the way Freshers are being advertised to so early, the majority of people need longer than a month to know who they want to live with!

I just wonder though, how is the standard in the house you live in now? Because that had an impact on the decision, at least it had on me, and we signed mid December. But I do agree with you, is way to early to start looking for houses already.

This year I think we're gonna wait as you all suggested. Because if you can find a flat that is in a good condition and only pay £45/w for it, that be well nice.

In my first year we got caught in the massive panic to get a house, found one that we liked that seemed reasonable at £64 p/w so we signed a contract for it in November. Even though we payed rent on it all summer at the end of first year, we didn't move in until september. Then in October our property shop wrote to us to say if we wanted the house for another year, we'd have to re-sign a contract by the end of october or they'd put it back on the market. We'd only lived there a month!

Being busy and stressed at the start of second year we all thought we might as well just sign for another year. But once we'd lived in it for a while, got talking to other students and visited our friends houses, I don't feel like we got the value for money we thought we did, especially not with bills on top. The house has turned out not to be so wonderful in one or two respects, like being so cold that we have permenant mould problems. To make things seem worse loads of my friends seem to have houses just as nice or better for the same money or less, some even closer to uni 

I often wish now that we'd shopped around a bit more, or at least waited til we'd really lived in the house til we decided we wanted to stay! You wouldn't just buy the first pair of shoes you saw without trying them on now would you?!

In my first year I signed in January/February and I'm so glad that I waited. I have a great house for £58 a week including water bills, good landlords and a great location. We signed a little earlier last year due to it simply being a contract renewal, but I would advise any one to wait as there were still loads of houses to choose from in January and it meant that I was sure I was living with people I like! Good times!