The private buildings sit in a band across central Cardiff, from City Road at the northern end to the Capital Quarter south of the railway. Rent runs from £140.00 to £242.00 a week across 9 buildings.
Neither campus is walkable day to day. Canvas The Parade, on the northern side, is 2.1 miles from the Llandaff campus and 2.6 miles from Cyncoed, and the buildings south of the railway are further from both. Each campus has a direct bus from town, and both can be cycled.
Cardiff Met has 549 rooms on the Cyncoed campus and 392 at Plas Gwyn, close to the Llandaff campus, all on 42-week contracts. Self-catered en-suite rooms at Cyncoed start at £156 a week. It also places students in more than 1,200 rooms in partner buildings around the city.
First years are guaranteed an offer of a room if they apply for accommodation by 31 May and hold Cardiff Met as their UCAS firm choice. The university is clear that this is an offer of a place, not of a particular residence, room type or price. Full-time postgraduates who are new to Cardiff Met can apply too. Returning students can apply, but rooms for them are limited and not guaranteed.
The private buildings take Cardiff Met students in any year, subject to each provider’s eligibility rules, and you book with the provider, not the university. A private room makes sense if you want a studio, a contract longer than 42 to 44 weeks, or to live in town. The catch is the daily trip, so add a bus pass to the rent when you compare. To look wider, see all student accommodation in Cardiff.
If you are at Cyncoed, look north of the railway. If you are at Llandaff, look near the bus interchange. The areas below run from north to south.
Llandaff has the Cardiff School of Art & Design, the Cardiff School of Management and the Cardiff School of Technologies. Cyncoed has the Cardiff School of Education & Social Policy. The Cardiff School of Sport & Health Sciences is split across both, so check your course page.
Cyncoed has one bus, the 52. It leaves Customhouse Street, calls at Churchill Way, West Grove and Albany Road, and stops inside the campus. The timetable gives 23 to 33 minutes from Customhouse Street and about five minutes less from Churchill Way. Buses run about every half hour in the daytime and hourly in the evening. Add your walk to the stop and the wait.
Llandaff has more options. The 62 and 63 leave the bus interchange beside Cardiff Central and reach Llandaff village in 15 to 20 minutes, a few minutes’ walk from the campus. The City Circle stops right outside, on Western Avenue. From Albany Road, catch the 2, which goes by way of Heath Hospital. The 1 runs the other way round the city, which makes it the bus home.
The M1 Met Rider runs between the two campuses in term time, by way of Albany Road and Cathays. It is not frequent, at around ten trips a day, and takes 35 to 45 minutes end to end.
A Cardiff Bus single is £2.60 and a week ticket is £19. If you are 16 to 21 and live in Wales, a mytravelpass is free and cuts that to £1 a single and £3 a day. Cardiff Met also sells the Met Rider pass, which covers every Cardiff Bus service until the end of June. For 2026/27 it costs £380 if you are 22 or over, and from £160 if you will still be under 22 on 25 June 2027 and hold a mytravelpass.
Cycling works better for one campus than the other. Llandaff is a flat ride up the Taff Trail, which follows the river and is almost entirely traffic-free. Cyncoed overlooks the city, and you will feel that on the way there. Both campuses have covered cycle stores that open with your student card.
Rent at these buildings has bills included, which means gas or electricity, water and internet. Contents insurance is not always part of it. A TV Licence, if you need one to watch or record live television or to use BBC iPlayer, is extra at £180 a year.
With an en-suite room you get your own bedroom and shower room and share a kitchen with your flat. Howard Gardens is all en-suite rooms, and Canvas The Parade has them alongside studios. A studio puts the bed, bathroom and kitchen in one room that is yours alone. Livin – Cardiff and City Heights are mostly studios, and Fitz & Knox is studio apartments and lofts. If you want to live with friends, Zenith has rooms in apartments of two, four and five bedrooms, and The Fitzalan and Canvas The Parade have two-bedroom apartments. City Heights has one-bedroom apartments.
Renting in Wales comes under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. The law calls you a contract-holder and your agreement an occupation contract, and you are owed a written statement of it within 14 days of your move-in date.
Contracts here are fixed term, and 51 weeks is the common length. Several buildings also offer 44 or 45, and a few offer a single term or semester at a higher weekly rate.
Welsh law limits a landlord’s charges to rent, a security deposit, a holding deposit of no more than one week’s rent, charges if you break the contract, and payments for council tax, utilities, communication services and a TV Licence if you need one. Anything else is a prohibited payment under the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019. A security deposit has to go into a government-approved protection scheme, and the landlord has 30 days to meet the scheme’s requirements. Some providers do not take a full security deposit, and each sets out what it does take in its payment terms. The Mystudenthalls.com guide to getting your deposit back covers what happens when you leave.
Full-time students can be exempt from council tax, and a flat where everyone is a full-time student is exempt. Share with someone who is not, and the flat can get a bill. You are not counted when it is worked out, which can mean a discount. Council tax is not part of the rent at any building. That matters most at Fitz & Knox, where people who are not students can live too. Cardiff Council handles council tax in Cardiff, and there is more in the guide to council tax for students.
A guarantor agrees to cover your rent if you do not pay it. Each provider sets its own rules on who can act as one, and on whether a paid guarantor service or rent paid in advance will do instead. If you are an international student without a UK guarantor, find that out before you apply.
Cyncoed is where the university’s sport happens. The National Indoor Athletics Centre is on the campus, the Students’ Union has its head office there, and Roath Park is about a mile away, with a 30-acre lake you can take a rowing boat out on.
Llandaff is the riverside campus. The Taff Trail runs past it and Llandaff village is a few minutes’ walk away.
Living in the centre means the shops and both main railway stations are a walk from your door, and you can walk home after a night out. If you do get stuck somewhere without the fare, the Students’ Union’s Safe Taxi Scheme will get you back. You ring the taxi firm, give your name and student number, and the union pays the driver. You then pay the union back within a few days.
From £140.00 to £242.00 a week across 9 buildings. Budget for the bus on top. With a mytravelpass, which is free if you are 16 to 21 and live in Wales, that is £14 a week on Cardiff Bus or from £160 for a Met Rider pass. If you are 22 or over, it is £19 a week or £380.
The 62 and 63 take 15 to 20 minutes from the bus interchange to Llandaff village, then a few minutes on foot. From Albany Road, the City Circle 2 takes about half an hour to the campus. Add the walk and the wait at your end.
The 52 takes 23 to 33 minutes from Customhouse Street. Late afternoon buses are the slow ones, and a morning or evening trip is nearer 25.
For Cyncoed, City Road and The Parade, because the 52 passes the end of the street. For Llandaff, Bridge Street, for the walk to the bus interchange. The Capital Quarter is the longest trip to either.
Yes. Nothing obliges you to take a university room, even if you qualify for the guaranteed offer. Compare the contract lengths as well as the weekly price, because the university’s rooms are let for 42 weeks and a private contract can run to 51.
Yes. Cardiff Met has some provision for full-time postgraduates in their first year at the university, but a 51-week private contract fits a full-year master’s better than a 42-week one.
Gas or electricity, water and internet. It does not cover a TV Licence, if you need one. Council tax is never part of the rent at any building, which only matters at Fitz & Knox, because people who are not students can live there.
Not if you are a full-time student living alone or only with other full-time students. Share with someone who is not, and the household may still get a bill, with a discount available.
A holding deposit to reserve a room cannot be more than one week’s rent. A security deposit must be protected in a government-approved scheme, and you get it back at the end of the contract, less any deductions.
It depends on the provider. Some want a guarantor who lives in the UK, and some accept a paid guarantor service or rent paid in advance instead.
Contracts of 51 weeks are common, with 44 or 45 at several buildings. Zenith and City Heights also list contracts of around a term or a semester, and Howard Gardens lists stays as short as ten weeks.
A guarantor is a person who signs a legal agreement to pay your rent if you don’t. Depending on the agreement, they can also be asked to pay for damage or other money you owe under your contract. If nobody you know meets the provider’s criteria, you still have options. Some universities don’t ask for…
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