Cambridge Travel Forum

Hi,

My Husband and I will move to Cambridge in March. We are starting to look for flats to rent but we are not sure yet in which part of the city we should look. What part of the city are not recommended or less safe? We don't have a car, so we would need an area with a fairly good public transport service. By our research on the net, we thought the city center or Cherry Hinton could be good choices. What do you think?

Also, coming from Canada, we are not used to go through agencies to rent a flat. We were told that almost everywhere in Europe, people have to deal with agencies to rent a property. Browsing through many agencies website, we realised that there is a lot of fees to pay and that the whole renting process can become really expensive!! Is there a way to avoid these agencies? In Canada, almost all flats to rent are advertised in newspapers by the landlords. Are there properties to rent advertised in newspapers in the UK?

If some of you have rented a flat through an agency that they liked and would recommend, this could help us to get a start!


Thank you for helping! :o)

Hi -

one place to look is the Cambridge Accomodation Notice Board:

http://www.brettward.co.uk/canb/

The local newspaper - the Cambridge Evening News - also has landlords advertising properties directly - some of these ads appear on the papers website:

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/marketplace/classified/property.lpf

Hope this helps...

Cheers,

Jeremy

Lots of people use agencies to rent out their property,because it saves hassle in chasing rent/ vetting tenants etc etc. There are privately rented properties available, and the sites mentioned above are good places to start looking. You might find, however, that you will have far more choice if you go through agents.

Hi

I lived in Cambridge for 6 months recently. The problem you will find is if you need to rent a place for less than 12 months - then your choices become limited. The advice you have been given above is good, and I can guarantee that the brettward site that Jeremy has given you a link to is a lively one, and you will receive replies to your postings.

Not all agencies are bad or expensive - I finally found a room through an agency that generally deals with student accommodation - I had to pay only £45 to the agency and very little in deposit to the landlady... so don't be scared off by the agencies.

Accommodation in Cambridge is expensive though, and not always of very high quality.

If you are arriving for work, it may be worthwhile seeing if there is a staff newsletter where you can ask colleagues for help finding accommodation. If you will be working for the university, the accommodation service there is very good too (they give you a password that allows you to access a very good search engine containing properties to rent at reasonable rates)

Good luck

Thanks a lot for all this info, it was all very helpfull! :o)

What about the northen part of the city (Chesterton, Milton and the area around Victoria Road)?? The public bus service does not look that great in these area, am I right?

Thank you!!

Hi -

The current Cambridge bus map is here (it's a large file, though):

http://www.stagecoachbus.com/timetables/Camguidedec2005.pdf

From this it looks like there are a few areas of north Cambridge with a good bus service - some of Gilbert Road and Chesterton Road - but elsewhere it could be a long walk to the bus stop.

The area around Victoria Road is mostly within walking distance of the city centre, but further out than that a bike may be a useful thing to have.

Hope this helps,

Jeremy

I'd stick with Cherry Hinton if I were you. It's a nice little area right next to the city. I could go on and on about how I almost got my dream apartment there, but I'll just spare you my sob story.

try

http://www.tgresidential.com

They have soooooo many property listings, it's ridiculous. They are a bit pricey though, but they're worth a look.

There's also

http://www.bushandco.co.uk

Their staff was very pleasant to deal with.

That's about all I got for you! Hope you find what you want.

Milton is a really nice area as well. I like Cherry Hinton better though.