Accommodation in London

[traineeintraining]

Hi all is anyone else struggling to find accommodation for their lpc/sqe? is this something you can ask your firm to help with ? the market is currently insane

 

[H.N.]

Your firm may be able to put you in touch with other future trainees who may be up for organising a flat share, but this would depend on your own firm’s approach.
Best advice I can give is to set up alerts on Spareroom/Openrent/Zoopla/Rightmove and call up estate agents or landlords directly (if you can) rather than putting in enquiries as these usually get ignored esp how quickly flats are getting let.
Try to also be flexible with area and budget- it’s not ideal but it would probably help you in your search by opening up more places to you.

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Hi all is anyone else struggling to find accommodation for their lpc/sqe? is this something you can ask your firm to help with ? the market is currently insane

The firm is unlikely to help themselves - although they may have access to a relocation expert who can help you or can put you in contact with other futures trainees who might have a spare room.

My general advice is to look before or after September though. Thousands of grads descend upon London each September looking for property meaning there is always a spike in demand (especially if you are looking in areas that are popular with grads). If you can find somewhere temporary, you may find you have more luck in October/November

 

[Lillith]

I think spare room has a 'premium' option where you can pay something like £25 to get priority access for a few months, otherwise you're limited to only messaging about rooms that have been up for a certain amount of time- there are some 'good deals' (they're still really expensive but not that bad compared to everything else) but they go really fast, so I'd recommend getting the priority access, setting up notifications like H.N. said, and just contacting about every room you could conceivably rent.