It’s the middle of winter, it’s cold, everyone is tired, and most first years are living in cosy residence rooms. However, we are halfway through the term and almost everyone will be working somewhere besides Waterloo for co-op. Hence, it is important to figure out where to live next term while you are still in the city.
The two most common options for student housing are residence and renting a house or apartment with a group of friends. Additionally, there is the other option of someone’s parents buying a house and then renting it out, but realistically most people can’t afford to do this.
The first option, residence, is the safest, but also the most expensive option. There are two major things to consider before choosing to live in residence as an upper year. First, you will be paying a large premium over other housing in the fall, while the winter and spring terms are more in line with other housing costs. Second, you need to follow all the residence rules that are set by the school. If you don’t like quiet hours and paying up to 800 dollars a month in the fall term, residence may not be the best option. However, if you happen to like enforced quiet time, the best internet in the city and only want a four month commitment (applies only to winter and spring terms), you may want to apply. Applications for residence at uWaterloo are currently open.
The other option, renting a house or apartment off-campus, is a little bit more complicated. There are two ways to go about this, the simplest being subletting someone’s room. The key things to think about are roommates, location, and what is included, for examples, utilities, laundry, and internet. Ideally, you want to be living with at least one person who you can trust in case you get sick, are in trouble or leave something in the house on your way to campus. You will also want to be relatively close to campus or a bus route that goes straight to campus. Just think about the dreaded 8:30 morning class. It is important to know what furniture you need to bring into a place. The best case scenario is that you will get a bed, desk and dresser. The worst case scenario is an empty room. Think carefully before committing to anything.
Now, subletting is not for everyone, especially if you want to live with a specific group of friends. Before you start house hunting there are two things that must absolutely be figure out: price range and number of people. You need to set an upper limit on how much you and your friends are willing to spend and stick to it. If someone can’t afford what the rest want, it may be in that person’s best interest to look elsewhere for roommates. Furthermore, this will finalize the number of rooms you will be looking for, which can drastically affect price and availability.
Once you have price and the people you want to live with finalized, it is time to start actually looking for houses. Your best resource for finding rentals is the Off-Campus Housing site for the school (https://uwaterloo.ca/off-campus-housing/). This website has a ton of resources for anyone that is looking to find housing. Especially of note is the house listing board that has houses both inside and outside the Waterloo region. Key things to look for here include location (as mentioned before), utilities, and other amenities that the house has, such as parking, laundry and backyard. From there you should go see a number of places before deciding whether you want to attempt to sign a lease.
While on the topic of visiting houses there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, basement apartments get extremely noisy from above. Second, this is a good time to judge whether your landlord cares about the welfare of the inhabitants or not. Look at the state of the property and the house to see if it is well maintained. Third, make sure there are adjustable thermostats for the rooms.
Once you’ve decided to go after a house, it is important to read your lease. Then, read your lease. Did you remember to read your lease? This is THE most important thing to do before fully signing off on a house. Can you sublet your room? Is the house non-smoking? What are the rules about noise? Who is responsible for fixing broken appliances? These and many others are questions you should consider while reading the lease. You can also have your lease reviewed for free by the Off-Campus Housing Office in the Student Life Centre. If there is something that you want in the lease and it isn’t there, you should bring it up immediately with the landlord.
To wrap things up, housing is one of those horrible but exciting things that almost every student has to deal with. The best way to find the house that is right for you is to be patient. There are a lot of houses out there and you want to be somewhere that feels comfortable and safe. If you do have questions, always remember that the university has resources to help students with off-campus housing.
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