5 Tips for Choosing Your Leicester Student Accommodation

Congrats! You’ve been offered a place at one of Leicester’s two universities: well done!

However, working out where you’ll actually live, how you’ll afford it, and whether you’ll enjoy the next few years somewhere new are challenges you now have to face. Looking for student accommodation in a city like Leicester can be daunting. Here’s what’s worth thinking through before results day turns into moving day.

1. Calculate Your Student Accommodation Budget

Leicester has a reputation as one of the more affordable student cities in the UK, and broadly that holds up, but affordable still needs a closer look before you sign anything.

Work out your true monthly cost, not just the headline rent. Ask whether bills are included (energy, water, broadband, contents insurance) or whether you’ll be adding those on top. A room that looks £20 cheaper a week can end up more expensive once you’re splitting an energy bill three ways in January.

Fortunately, Cloud Student Homes includes bills in all its rents, meaning you won’t have to fork out more for your utilities if you choose to stay with us at Tudor Studios or Mintworks!

Don’t ignore the deposit and guarantor requirements. International students or those without a UK-based guarantor should check early whether a student accommodation provider offers guarantor services or requires an upfront deposit alternative as this can affect your budget in the first few weeks.

Some accommodation providers, like us here at Cloud, offer guarantor waiver schemes meaning – for a small fee – you do not need to provide a guarantor when booking your accommodation. Worth thinking about when considering your options!

Book earlier rather than later. The best-value rooms in well-located buildings go first, often months before term starts. Waiting until August to sort accommodation usually means paying more for less choice.

 

2. Proximity to Your University Campus

Leicester is compact enough that ‘far’ rarely means genuinely far, but proximity still matters more than students expect in October and a lot less by March.

A five- or ten-minute walk to lectures is genuinely valuable for 9am starts, library sessions, and society meet-ups you’d otherwise talk yourself out of. But it’s worth balancing that against noise, price, and the kind of neighbourhood you actually want to live in day to day. A slightly longer commute on a good bus route can still mean a shorter door-to-door time than a closer option down an awkward side street.

Practical questions worth asking before you commit:

• What’s the actual walking or cycling time at 8:45am, not the Google Maps average?
• Is there a direct, frequent bus route, and does it run late enough for evening seminars or society events?
• How does the area feel walking home alone after dark?

Also consider the fact that Leicester’s two universities – the University of Leicester and De Montfort University – are located in different parts of the city. De Montfort’s main campus sits at the heart of Leicester, while the University of Leicester’s is slightly further out of town.

While public transport is widely available in Leicester and on the whole reliable, choosing accommodation that means you can roll out of bed and into your lecture may reduce your stress levels – which is why our brand new accommodation Mintworks might be the right choice if you’re going to De Montfort, as it’s only a 5 minute walk to campus!

3. Make Time to Experience Leicester’s Culture and Nightlife

This is where a lot of students under-invest in the first term, then wonder why the city hasn’t ‘clicked’ by Christmas.

Leicester is one of the UK’s most culturally diverse cities, and that shows up everywhere — from the food on Belgrave Road (the Golden Mile, and genuinely one of the best places for South Asian cuisine in the country) to the multicultural festivals that run throughout the year, Diwali celebrations among the largest outside India. Trying to actually experience this, rather than sticking to campus bars and a handful of familiar chains, tends to be what students look back on fondly.

For nightlife, the city has a decent spread without ever feeling overwhelming – student nights around the city centre, a solid live music scene, and enough independent bars that you’re not limited to identikit chains. It’s not Manchester or Leeds in scale, and in some ways that’s a strength: easier to find your regular spots, easier to feel like a local rather than a tourist in your own city.

Beyond nightlife specifically:

• Green space matters more than students expect. Victoria Park and the wider De Montfort Hall area give you somewhere to decompress that isn’t a pub or a library.
• The National Space Centre, New Walk Museum, and Curve theatre are all worth a visit at some point, even if culture wasn’t top of your list when you applied.
• Leicester City’s football culture is hard to ignore even if you don’t follow the sport – matchdays shift the energy of the whole city centre.

4. Work Out How to Get Around Leicester

Most students won’t need one. Leicester’s bus network covers the university areas well, and the city centre is walkable end to end in under half an hour for most routes. If you’re cycling, check whether your accommodation offers secure bike storage – it’s a small detail that makes a real difference to daily life.

 

5. Build a Student Support Network Before You Need One

Whether it’s flatmates, coursemates, or a society you join in Freshers’ Week, the students who settle in fastest tend to be the ones who put themselves in situations to meet people early, rather than waiting for it to happen naturally. Leicester’s societies and sports clubs are a genuinely easy way to do this, and many run taster sessions in the first fortnight specifically for this reason.

The Bottom Line: Make Sure You Choose the Right Student Accommodation for Your Uni Years

Leicester rewards students who do a bit of homework before arriving: understanding what you’re actually paying each month, being honest about how much proximity to campus is worth to you, and making a deliberate effort to get out into the city rather than defaulting to the same three streets all year. Get those right, and you’re a long way towards a good few years.

Cloud Student Homes are delighted to offer two great value properties in Leicester, with Tudor Studios and Mintworks coming with a range of en-suite, studio, and duplex accommodation. All rooms come with bills included and a range of on-site amenities including study spaces, laundry facilities, bike storage, and more. Enquire now before the Clearing rush!