Rents run from £119.00 to £164.00 a week, and every building has bills included. You can take an en-suite room in a shared flat of up to six, or a studio with its own kitchen. Contracts run from 41 to 51 weeks, with some shorter stays for a single semester. Exton Park, where the library and the Students’ Union are, is between 5 and 25 minutes away on foot depending on the building.
Private student accommodation in Chester is open to you in any year of study, subject to each provider’s eligibility rules. These are all private buildings, not run by the university, and you choose the building, the room type and the contract length yourself.
University of Chester accommodation is guaranteed to Firm choice applicants who apply by the university’s advised deadline in the spring, in either university or partnership rooms. Its contracts run for 40 weeks self-catered or 38 weeks full board, with utility bills included in university-owned rooms, and its prices include £129.85 a week at Powys Court and £188.30 at Grosvenor House, both self-catered. Tramways and The Towpath also appear on the university’s accommodation pages, so a room arranged through the university may turn out to be in one of these buildings. To sort the buildings by distance from the university, use the University of Chester page.
These are the University of Chester’s teaching sites in the city, with the nearest building to each.
The University Centres in Warrington, Birkenhead and at Reaseheath, near Nantwich, are outside the city.
Every building is within 20 minutes of the city centre on foot, and buses cover the sites further out. From Chester Bus Interchange, Arriva 1 and 1A stop a short walk from Exton Park, and Arriva 1 and 11 stop near Queen’s Park. Single fares on Stagecoach buses in England are capped at £3 while the national fare cap lasts.
Chester station has direct Merseyrail trains to Liverpool, about 45 minutes away. It is under five minutes on foot from Tramways, 5 to 10 from Northgate Point & Studios and 15 to 20 from The Towpath. If you cycle, the university has storage at every site, and a gate at Exton Park opens onto the Millennium Greenway cycle path between 7am and 9pm with a university pass.
The weekly rent has bills included at every building, which covers gas, electricity, water and internet. A TV Licence, if you need one, is not part of the rent.
Student rooms in Chester are either en-suite rooms or studios. An en-suite room gives you your own bedroom and shower room, with a kitchen and living space shared with up to five flatmates. A studio has its own kitchen as well, with nothing shared, and costs more a week than an en-suite room in the same building. Northgate Point & Studios is all studios.
From 1 May 2026, most assured tenancies in England’s private rented sector became periodic rather than fixed term. Purpose-built student accommodation is treated differently. GOV.UK’s Housing Hub says a contract signed after that date to move into purpose-built student accommodation is not affected by the Renters’ Rights Act and may still have a fixed term. Read the cancellation terms before you sign, and check the total for the year as well as the weekly rent, because contracts run from 41 to 51 weeks.
The Tenant Fees Act 2019 covers student lettings and licences as well as standard tenancies. Under GOV.UK’s guidance for tenants, a tenancy deposit is capped at five weeks’ rent where the annual rent is under £50,000, and a holding deposit at one week’s rent.
Each provider also sets its own rule on guarantors. If you have nobody in the UK to ask, a guarantor service will stand in for a fee, though no provider has to accept one. The Mystudenthalls.com guide to guarantors covers the options.
Full-time students can be exempt from council tax, which Cheshire West and Chester Council handles in Chester. Our guide to student council tax explains how the exemption works.
Exton Park has the Students’ Union, a bar, a swimming pool, a gym and squash and tennis courts, with the Garden Quarter’s pubs and cafés around it. In the centre, Storyhouse puts a theatre, an independent cinema, a restaurant and a library in one building that stays open until 11pm. Chester Market, close by on Exchange Square, has food and drink traders serving into the evening from Tuesday to Sunday. For a bigger night out, Liverpool is about 45 minutes away by train.
From £119.00 to £164.00 a week with bills included. Contract lengths differ, and the yearly total moves with them. A £125 room comes to £5,125 over 41 weeks and £5,750 over 46.
No, these are private buildings and you can book any of them yourself. The university’s guarantee covers university or partnership accommodation, and its accommodation pages include Tramways and The Towpath, so the university may also offer you a room in one of them.
At Tramways and The Towpath the provider takes no deposit and asks for an advance rent payment when you book. Northgate Point & Studios asks for a £150 deposit.
A property is exempt if every resident is a full-time student, which the council counts as at least 21 hours of study a week for 24 weeks a year. A mixed household can still get a bill, with a 25% reduction where one of two residents is a student. You will need your student certificate.
Gas, electricity, water and internet. A TV Licence, if you need one, is extra at £180 a year. You need one to watch or record live television or to use BBC iPlayer.
Yes, you book directly with the provider. Ask about its guarantor rule before you book, because some providers want a guarantor who lives in the UK. A guarantor service is one alternative.
Rents, contract lengths and the university’s rates were correct at the last update and can change.
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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