Mystudenthalls.com currently lists 8 Cardiff properties, with rooms from £160 a week at the lowest end and up to £242 a week at the top, and bills included in the rent on most of them. The choice of student accommodation in Cardiff runs from en-suite rooms in shared flats to fully self-contained studios and one-bedroom apartments, so you can pick by how you want to live rather than just where. Use the filters on the city page to sort by price, area, room type or features such as a gym or bike storage, and you will see only what is genuinely available for the year you are booking.
Cardiff is one of the more affordable places to study in the UK, and the numbers back that up. The Higher Education Policy Institute and Unipol, in their October 2023 report on accommodation costs across ten UK cities, recorded Cardiff’s average annual purpose-built rent at £6,632 for 2023/24, among the most affordable of the cities surveyed. Cardiff University alone enrolled 31,505 students in 2024/25 according to HESA, and once Cardiff Metropolitan University and the other institutions are added the city’s student population is comfortably above 40,000, which keeps demand for student accommodation Cardiff sees each autumn high through the booking window.
Every property on Mystudenthalls.com is privately operated, purpose-built student accommodation rather than a university hall, and that distinction is important. University residences are tied to your institution and usually prioritise first years, whereas the private student accommodation Cardiff students will find here is open to undergraduates and postgraduates at any of the city’s institutions, in any year of study, and to international students arriving without a UK rental history. Cardiff University currently guarantees a room to first-year undergraduates and to international postgraduates starting in September who meet the deadlines, but it does not guarantee places to most UK postgraduates or to returning students, so a private room is often the practical route once first year is over.
The appeal of the private accommodation Cardiff lists is that you choose the building, the area and the room type yourself, and you lock in a known weekly cost with bills bundled in rather than juggling separate utility accounts. Many buildings also welcome postgraduates and mature students, and several run rolling tenancies that suit course start dates outside the standard September intake. If you want to weigh both routes, look at what your institution guarantees first, then compare it against the studios and en-suites on the city page.
If you are looking for cheap student accommodation Cardiff has options for, the lowest live weekly prices sit in and around the city centre and its eastern fringe rather than in the newest premium towers. The cheapest room currently listed in Cardiff starts at under £170 a week, and the clusters below are where the value concentrates.
For context on why these prices look reasonable, the Higher Education Policy Institute and Unipol found Cardiff’s rent rose 11.1% over the two years to 2023/24, far more gently than Exeter at 16.1% or Glasgow at 20.4%, and well below the £9,200 average that topped their October 2023 survey in Bristol.
Price is only half the decision. The areas below each have a different feel, and the live listings in them reflect that.
Where you should base yourself depends heavily on which campus you are heading to each day.
Cardiff also hosts the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama near Bute Park; it has no dedicated page on the site, but the city-centre listings serve it well.
Cardiff is compact and flat, and many students can walk between their room, campus and the centre without relying on transport. When you do need it, the options are simple. Cardiff Bus runs the main network with contactless tap-on, tap-off fares that cap automatically over a day, and Transport for Wales operates local rail from Cardiff Central, the busiest station in Wales with 12.5 million entries and exits in 2024/25 according to the Office of Rail and Road, and from Cardiff Queen Street, the hub for the Valley Lines services running north of the city. With a network of local stations across the urban area, living slightly further out and commuting in by train is realistic. The flat terrain also makes cycling easy, with the traffic-free Taff Trail running from Cardiff Bay through Bute Park and out towards the north of the city.
On most listings the rent has bills included, which typically covers gas, electricity, water and broadband in a single weekly figure, so you are not setting up separate utility accounts or splitting meter readings with flatmates. Always check the individual listing, because the exact mix varies and some inclusions carry a fair-usage policy. One cost that bills-included rent does not usually cover is the TV Licence, which you need to watch or record live TV or to use BBC iPlayer; the standard colour licence rose to £180 a year from 1 April 2026 according to TV Licensing, and a household of full-time students sharing a flat can often share one.
Room types fall into three broad groups. En-suite rooms in shared flats give you a private bedroom and bathroom with a communal kitchen, and they are the most sociable and usually the most affordable choice. Studios and one-bedroom apartments are fully self-contained, with your own kitchen and bathroom, and they suit students who want quiet and independence; City Heights and Fitz & Knox lean this way. Across the live listings you will find shared flats, studios and one-bedroom apartments in the same buildings, so filtering by room type is the fastest way to compare like with like.
Student tenancies in Cardiff are occupation contracts under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, the Welsh framework that replaced the old assured shorthold tenancy in Wales, so the paperwork and terminology differ from England. Contract lengths vary by building and commonly run from around 42 to 51 weeks to cover the academic year, with some providers offering shorter or more flexible terms, so check each listing.
On money, Wales is governed by the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019, not the England-only Tenant Fees Act. Under the Welsh Act a holding deposit used to reserve a room is capped at no more than one week’s rent. Unlike England, the Welsh Act does not currently set a statutory cap on the size of the security deposit itself, though any deposit you pay must still be protected in a government-approved scheme. Full-time students are exempt from council tax: a property occupied only by full-time students is exempt under Welsh rules, and you can ask your university for a council tax certificate to confirm your status to the council. If you cannot provide a UK-based guarantor, which is common for international students, a paid service such as Housing Hand can act as your guarantor so you can pay monthly rather than upfront; many providers accept it.
Beyond lectures, Cardiff packs a lot into a small footprint. Cardiff Castle sits in the middle of the centre, Bute Park gives you green space along the River Taff, and the Principality Stadium hosts international rugby, football and major concerts a short walk from most city-centre rooms. Cardiff Bay adds a regenerated waterfront with the Wales Millennium Centre and plenty of bars and restaurants, while Barry Island is a quick train ride for a summer day out. Salisbury Road and City Road in Cathays cover most nights out, and Albany Road in Roath is the everyday high street for the eastern student areas.
On Mystudenthalls.com, the cheapest live student room Cardiff has runs from £160 a week, rising to £242 a week for the largest studios, with most listings including bills in that figure. For wider context, the Higher Education Policy Institute and Unipol’s October 2023 accommodation costs survey recorded Cardiff’s average annual purpose-built rent at £6,632 for 2023/24, among the most affordable of the ten UK cities they studied.
The lowest live weekly prices sit in the city centre and its eastern edge. The Fitzalan and Lumya Cardiff both start at £160 a week, and Howard Gardens starts at £173, all within walking distance of the stations and Cathays Park. Filter the city page by price to see the current cheapest rooms.
On most Cardiff listings, bills included means gas, electricity, water and broadband are wrapped into one weekly rent, sometimes with a fair-usage policy. It does not normally cover the TV Licence, so check the individual listing for the exact mix.
No. Full-time students are exempt, and a property occupied only by full-time students is exempt from council tax under Welsh rules. You may need to give your council a student certificate from your university to confirm it.
Cardiff is in Wales, so the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019 applies. A holding deposit to reserve a room is capped at one week’s rent. Unlike England, the Welsh Act does not currently set a fixed cap on the security deposit, but any deposit must be protected in a government-approved scheme.
Many private providers ask for a UK-based guarantor. If you do not have one, a paid guarantor service such as Housing Hand can stand in for you, which lets you pay rent in instalments rather than several months upfront. Check that your chosen building accepts it before you book.
Yes. Private student accommodation is open to any student in any year, including first years, so you are not limited to university residences. It is also the usual route for returning students and most UK postgraduates, who are not guaranteed a university room.
Contract lengths vary by building and commonly run from around 42 to 51 weeks to cover the academic year. Some providers offer shorter or more flexible terms, so check the length of stay on each listing.
Cathays is the most searched student area in the city each autumn, and the better-value rooms tend to go first, so starting in the autumn before your course year is sensible. That said, Cardiff lists student homes year-round, so later searches and short-stay options are still possible.
An en-suite room gives you a private bedroom and bathroom with a shared kitchen, and is usually the most affordable and sociable choice. A studio is fully self-contained with your own kitchen and bathroom. A shared flat groups several rooms around a communal kitchen. Filter by room type to compare the student flats, student apartments and student studios in each building directly.
Purpose-built buildings generally come with on-site or 24/7 staff, secure key-fob entry and CCTV, and many list security features you can filter for. Cardiff is a compact capital, and as with any city, picking student housing with staffed entry and asking the provider about overnight cover is worth doing.
For Cardiff University, base yourself in the city centre or Cathays near the Cathays Park campus and browse the Cardiff University accommodation page. For Cardiff Metropolitan University, a city-centre room plus a bus or bike to Llandaff or Cyncoed works best, since the campuses are outside the centre. For the University of South Wales, the city-centre and Adamsdown listings near its Adam Street campus are ideal; see the University of South Wales Cardiff campus page. Student living close to the right campus saves you the most time over the year.
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