According to market reports, “University Living” has become the leading student housing service platform in the market for student housing. University Living, a popular platform that started its operation 9 years ago, in the year 2015, has been offering the listings of accommodations since then. It offers some unique features for students, which ease the process of accommodation search for international students, which is one of the reasons why it has become a leading player in the market in such a short time.
University Living provides its services through its website Universityliving.com and its mobile app. The lists are available on the website (same on the mobile app) of accommodations in different cities in various countries. One can find student accommodation in UK, USA, Australia, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and more nations with the help of University Living.
When a student visits University Living’s website, he/she finds a search box and the names of some major cities in the world including London, Nottingham, Cardiff, Melbourne, Birmingham, Liverpool, Toronto, and New York on the homepage. If the student wants to find accommodation in any of these cities or the cities mentioned at the time of his/her visit, he/she can directly click its name to find the list in that city. If the city desired by a student is not listed then there is an option to search for the student accommodation through the search box.
When students search for their desired city names, they reach a dedicated page, where the accommodations in their desired city have been listed. On most pages, there are three sections, which are for “student housing”, “private apartments”, and “homestays”. In “student housing”, students find a list of PBSA (Purpose-Built Student Accommodation) properties in the city. PBSA properties are student housing complexes developed by private developers with facilities as per the requirements and preferences of students. Private apartments are rental apartments, which can also be rented by students. Homestays are the arrangements in which students can stay with their families in their homes. On some pages, the section for homestays is not available but on many of them, it is available.
By clicking the name or image of each accommodation option, students can reach its page and can read its details such as prices, amenities, distances from different universities and colleges, and more.
Besides, there are some special features on University Living’s website, which ease the process of accommodation search. One of the features is the filter feature, which allows students to filter the lists of accommodations on the basis of price ranges, amenities, shared/private bathrooms, shared/private rooms, room types, and more. Another significant feature here is the sorting feature through which the list can be sorted on the basis of prices, popularity, best offers, etc. The list can be arranged in the order of closeness to a university. For this, students can select their university names in the dropdown arrow on the page. For each section, students are required to select separately. Students can directly find the list sorted in the order of nearby locations of their universities by entering the university name in the search box instead of the city’s name on the homepage.
There is a special feature, which is provided by only a few platforms, is available on University Living’s website and that is the comparison feature. This feature allows students to compare prices, amenities, distances from a university, and some other aspects of multiple properties or private apartments on a single website. But, the properties and private apartments of one city can be compared with each other, not any other city.
For example, if students are on the page of London student accommodation properties and private apartments, they can compare London’s properties and apartments with other London’s properties and apartments only and not with properties/apartments in Nottingham or any other city. Only four properties or private apartments can be compared at a time, and if students want to compare more than four properties, they need to repeat the process.
The easy method to use the comparison feature is to first click the “+add to compare” caption on the image of each property or apartment and that property/apartment is selected. After selecting a maximum of four properties/apartments, students need to click the “+” symbol on the right-hand side of the page and they find the properties/apartments selected by them vertically. Below that vertical list, they need to click the “compare” button. After clicking, they find prices, amenities, and many other details in tabular format. Above this, they find an option to enter their university names to compare the distance of that university with properties.
These special features undoubtedly are some of the major reasons why University Living is leading in the student housing market. Besides, University Living provides good customer support.
