Accommodation in Belfast

I have had many doubts when it has come to choosing accommodation during my stay in Belfast.

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The first question was: shared flat or student residence?

On the one hand, being in a student residence would guarantee you certain facilities, a certain level of security and a student-friendly atmosphere... but, in Belfast, their prices fluctuated between 400€ and 450€ per month, which, in my opinion, seemed to be quite expensive, honestly. My destination university is Queen's University Belfast, so I will leave the link to the university's accommodation webpage here in case you want to look.

Another drawback that I found with the student residences were the restrictions in place over visiting hours for guests... you only had a few days allocated for this. Obviously, if someone comes to visit you, you at least want to do them the favour of saving them money on accommodation... so, for this reason, I started to search for flats or houses to share.

The search started on different websites, like Gumtree, as well later searching through the estate agents in the area. Rent prices mainly fluctuated between 200€ and 250€ a month and, in the majority of cases, the contracts were year-long and were for an entire house... in other words, you would have to find other people to share it with yourself.

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The idea of signing a year-long contract for a house that I had never even seen before didn't fill me with excitement, in addition to the fact that I didn't know what I could find, so I was then recommend a website called Qflats, which offered different rooms in 7 shared flats in Belfast. All of them are priced between 200€ and 250€ a month, according to the size and mod cons of each room, and have a 3 month contract, which seemed perfect to me in terms of being able to move in case I found better accommodation upon my arrival there.

In the end, I chose to reserve a room through this company: a single room, in a 4 bedroom flat, paying 200€ a month, adding on an extra 20€ for electricity. Mind you, the heating is provided through a prepaid system paid between the tenants (you can also find prepaid electricity systems) and will fluctuate around another 20€ a month.

So, with this all organised, the torture of searching for accommodation in Belfast was over. I will leave you a photo of what my future room is supposed to be like during these first 3 months. It's not huge by any means, but it seems to have all the necessary things (except bedding, of course).

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