Off-campus accommodation

The Housing Office can also provide assistance to those students residing in private accommodation outside the student residences. Whether you are in a shared living arrangement with flatmates or you have a lease through an agent or Landlord the Housing Welfare Officer can assist with:

Search for private accommodation
Search for shared accommodation
Homestay providers (for those students over 18 years)
Provide advice on tenancy matters
Short to long term accommodation providers

For any queries email the Housing welfare officer, call +61 2 9514 1509 or drop into the Housing Office during business hours.

Privately operated student accommodation

The below listed accommodation is not operated by UTS, however they primarily accommodate students, so your neighbours are likely to be fellow students from any of the Universities or colleges in the area.

urbanest: Located only 6 minutes walk from the city campus UTS Tower Building, urbanest is a brand new facility comprised of single rooms in shared apartments. For more information please see their website and contact them directly with any queries or for availability.

UniLodge Sydney: Located only 8 minutes walk from the city campus UTS Tower Building, UniLodge offers a range of studios and loft style apartments for single or share accommodation. For more information please see their website and contact them directly with any queries or for availability.

Iglu: Located only 3 minute walk from the city campus UTS Tower Building, Iglu offers brand new accommodation opening in 2013, including a range of studios and single rooms in shared apartments. For more information please see their website and contact them directly with any queries or for availability.

Renting private accommodation

Finding a rental property in Sydney can be tough and even confusing. Our Guide to Renting Private Accommodation provides you with the tools and information you need to make finding a rental property not such a daunting task.

When sharing a property the same rules may not apply to you if you are not the actual lease holder of the premises. Our Share Accommodation Guide provides you with information of typical sharing situations and provide possible solutions to problems that may arise.

Search the off campus accommodation listing service

If you are looking for a place to rent in Sydney, the University Housing Service can help.

The Housing Service maintains a database of off campus accommodation listings offering a choice of share rooms in private houses and apartments in Sydney. This service is designed exclusively for UTS students and staff, and is your shortcut to finding share accommodation to rent. Accommodation listings are provided by other students, people in the community and also real estate agents.

Warning

Accommodation scams are running on popular accommodation search websites (including UTS Housing Service Off-campus accomodation listing.) One is aimed at landlords whereby scammers send a cheque or claim to have deposited funds in your PayPal account for an amount well in excess of the agreed rental, together with some excuse about the over payment. The scammer than asks the landlord to electronically refund the excess back to a specified bank account. Having done as requested, the landlord later finds that the cheque has been dishonoured and has very little chance of recovering the funds.

Students looking for accommodation are strongly advised not to send any money to try and secure short term accommodation before arriving in Sydney, and they should view the premises in person before paying a deposit to secure the short term accommodation. If unsure, please seek advice by writing to the Housing Welfare Officer.
See the following websites for details of various Scams:

Disclaimer

Disclaimer and important information you need to read and understand about the accommodation on UTS Off-campus accommodation listing site. The information and contacts provided on the UTS Off-campus accommodation listing (Studystays website) are to assist you in your search for accommodation and provide you with details of the services you may require. The information provided is compiled in good faith, and is intended as a guide only. UTS Housing Service does not investigate the content of any information provided nor does it endorse, guarantee, warrant, or recommend the accuracy of the information or necessarily subscribe to any such opinions or recommendations. The above mentioned organisations do not profit in any way or sponsor any of the contacts listed, they are provided solely as a convenience and service to you.

UTS hosts this listing service but takes no responsibility for the accuracy of the information contained herein or for any arrangement or agreement that are entered into between individuals as a result of utilising this listing service. Each party should take reasonable steps to ensure matters related to the financial and personal security, suitability and other aspects of the arrangement are fully discussed and agreed upon before finalising the arrangement. The UTS Housing Service recommends that the parties follow best practice procedures as outlined in The new tenant checklist - NSW Office of Fair Trading (opens an external site).

What can go wrong living in off-campus private accommodation?

Lots of things can go wrong when you live in off-campus private accommodation. These testimonials are not meant to scare you, but simply make you aware of some of the issues that may arise, for example sharing bills, common space, and rental bonds. Below is an excerpt from a real-life testimonial written by a student about their bad experience in private shared accommodation (personal details have been removed).

"We are a couple from XX and we are only in Australia in six months. We found private accommodation, through the university, with a person in XX.

But this particular person turned out to be a nightmare, and this is why we are writing this E-mail to you. We hope with this warning about the truth about this person, that you will do what you and your University can to make sure that no other students are going to find them self in that horrible situation living with them.

The problem with living with them is that they had enormous mood swings, the one moment happy, the next mad and giving us lectures about how to behave or simply just ignoring you because you flushed the toilet at 12 am, or use the internet at a moment when it is apparently needed, which they of course didn’t tell us before they start yelling. These things doesn’t sound that tough, but living with it every day for five months is very tough, and made us walk on egg-shells and made us unable to relax completely, as you should be able to in your home. It is very hard to sum up such a bad behavior in a second language and in a mail, but the result has been that we have hated living in Australia, and tried to be out of the house as much as we could, even if XX needed to do assignments, or we hid in our room. On top of this behavior, everything about the subletting has been illegal. There has been no lease, the bond has not been lodged, and which of course resulted in that they refuse to give us the bond back. There was no clear agreement on how the electricity bill should be split, and this has ended up in a claim that we should pay 2/3 of the $ 1400 electrical bill for the first three months, and there is going to be another bill as well. All of this has severely damaged our opinion of Australia, and made it a very bad stay, we hope that you will try to make sure that this is not going to happen to anybody else, and blacklist them from your accommodation sites, and don’t recommend any of your students to go live with them, and maybe even warn them."

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