Student accommodation can look expensive when you’re staring at the monthly rental figure.
Then you calculate what you’d spend getting to campus every day, buying your own Wi-Fi, paying utilities and losing an hour or two to traffic.
Suddenly, the maths gets a little more interesting.
Start with the full cost
Don’t compare accommodation based on rent alone.
Add up:
-
- Rent
- Electricity and water
- Wi-Fi
- Transport
- Food or meal costs
- Laundry
- Parking, if applicable
- Any once-off fees
UCT also advises students to check which utilities and services are included when comparing off-campus accommodation.
This gives you a much more realistic monthly figure.
Is living closer to campus worth paying more?
Sometimes, yes.
Living close enough to walk to lectures can save money on transport. It also gives you something less obvious: time.
An extra 30 minutes each way doesn’t sound dramatic until you’ve done it five days a week for an entire semester.
That time could be used for studying, cooking, gym, societies, seeing friends or simply lying horizontally for a while.
For UCT students, being near a Jammie Shuttle stop can also be useful. The university’s shuttle service is free to students with a valid student card, and current routes include areas such as Claremont and Observatory.
What about staying at home?
For some students, staying at home wins the financial argument by a mile.
If your family home is close enough to campus and you have a good study environment, paying for accommodation may not make much sense.
But the equation changes if you’re spending hours commuting, paying for daily transport or struggling to find somewhere quiet to work.
There isn’t one correct answer.
What do you actually get for the money?
This is where student accommodation can differ dramatically.
Some options offer little more than a room and four walls.
Others may include Wi-Fi, communal spaces, security, laundry facilities, furniture, study areas or access to transport routes.
UCT’s residence system, for example, includes different accommodation tiers, with options ranging from fully catered residences to self-catering and semi-autonomous accommodation.
So don’t just ask, “Is this expensive?”
Ask, “What am I getting for that price?”
Don’t forget power
A place with reliable power or a decent backup system can be worth considering, especially if you’re studying from home.
Ask exactly what happens during power interruptions.
Will the Wi-Fi stay online? Can you use the communal study area? Are plug points available? Does the backup system cover individual rooms?
The details matter more than the phrase “backup power” on a listing.
So, is student housing worth it?
Sometimes.
For one student, paying more to live close to campus could make perfect sense.
For another, sharing a house further away might be the smarter financial decision.
And for someone living with their parents 15 minutes from university, paying rent may make absolutely no sense at all.
The best way to decide is to compare the total monthly cost, commute, facilities and your actual lifestyle.
Because the cheapest room isn’t always the cheapest way to live.