Student Houses in City Centre, Lancaster

The centre is compact and walkable. You can get from one side to the other in about fifteen minutes, which means your food shop, your nights out and your train home are all on foot. Over a year that adds up to a meaningful saving on buses and taxis.

Housing in the centre leans towards flats and apartments more than the big shared terraces you find in Bowerham or Moorlands. That suits smaller groups, couples and postgraduates, and it means you will see a wider range of property types than elsewhere in Lancaster.

Both universities are reachable by bus from the centre, and because it is the hub of the network, services are frequent. Lancaster University is the longer journey of the two, so factor in the daily round trip if you have a lot of contact hours.

The obvious trade off is noise. Living above or beside a busy street in a city centre means traffic, deliveries in the morning and people going home at night. If you are a light sleeper, ask which way the bedrooms face and how recently the windows were done.

Parking is limited and often permit controlled. Most students living centrally do without a car, and given how walkable the centre is, that is usually no great loss.

The saving on transport is worth doing the sums on. If you would otherwise be paying for a bus pass and the occasional taxi home, living centrally can offset a slightly higher rent. Work out what you would actually spend getting about before you rule an area in or out on rent alone.

When you view a central flat, ask about how the building is heated and who is responsible for what, because arrangements vary far more in converted buildings than in a standard shared house. It is also worth asking where deliveries and bins go, which is rarely obvious from the front door.