A Guide to Student Accommodation in Aberdeen

Are you going to start studying at the University of Aberdeen? Not sure which student accommodation to go for? Then here´s the guide for you!

I started university in September 2017 and since then have stayed in 3 different halls of residence. So in this post I´d like to share some of my advice on the student accommodation options in Aberdeen….

I will try and give a rough overview of all the different places you can stay and give you an idea of their locations and proximity to other places (University, sports village, shops etc.). This is probably one of the hardest things to judge if you don´t know the city.
I remember struggling to figure out where the best place to stay would be, so hopefully you find this guide helpful.

In first year, your classes will all be at King´s college which is the main campus (red drop on map).
Only medical students have classes in Foresterhill (N.B. not medical science students). Foresterhill is a bit of a walk from main campus, however there is a free shuttle bus (9U) that takes you from the main campus up to Foresterhill.
So, in my opinion it is better to try and find accommodation near the main campus, as it means you are closer to town and all other amenities.

You can find the location of all the different halls on the map I created below. If you want to see what some of the different places look like (at least from outside), make sure to check out my Guide To Student Accommodation in Aberdeen videos on YouTube!

Map of Student Accommodation in Aberdeen:

student accommodation in Aberdeen Unite Students student roost — Student Accommodation in Aberdeen (For Hillhead Student Village and Don Street see map below)

*Disclaimer*
Walking times are rough estimates of mine and will obviously depend on how quickly you walk.
Prices are also just guidelines and are what was displayed at the time I last looked.
Obviously, in the end it is up to you which accommodation you chose, I´m just giving you some advice based on my experience.

Aberdeen Student Accommodation Guide

Let´s crack on then and look into all the different options:

1) Hillhead Student Village

Hillhead Student Village comprises many different buildings and is the student accommodation offered by the university. The different buildings offer rooms for different prices and different numbers of people you´ll be sharing with. The only building offering en-suite rooms is New Carnegie, which is the most expensive option. There is also a central building with a bar and many social spaces.
Hillhead has good and bad aspects in my opinion, so I´ll quickly run through the pros and cons for you:

Pros:

There are mostly (only) first year students staying there, so you´ll meet loads of other Freshers
There are events organised for students in the central building during Fresher´s week and throughout the year that you can attend (HOWEVER: events held at Hillhead are open to all students, so even if you don´t stay there you can still attend the events if you want to)
Lidl is a 10 minute walk away (uphill though, when you are coming back)

Cons:

The location of Hillhead isn´t great for multiple reasons. It is about a 15-20 minute walk from uni, depending on which route you take, however it is just under a half hour walk to Aberdeen Sports Village (ASV) and perhaps a 45 minute walk from the city centre. There is a bus that will take you to Hillhead from town, however bus tickets are fairly expensive (£3.70 for a student day ticket). Also, the shortest way to get from Hillhead to university is by walking through Seaton Park. That´s fine during the day, when there are loads of people around, however at night it is pitch black and not said to be very safe to walk (especially on your own). The other road up to Hillhead is not a busy road either and is fairly badly lit at night.

My Conclusion:

Although a lot of first year students stay at Hillhead, I would probably not recommend staying there. It is very much out of the way of everything else, i.e. far away from the sports village, town etc.
There are plenty of other first year students that also stay in other halls, and it can also be nice to be in a flat with people from different years or exchange students.
And although you might want to attend some of the events held at Hillhead, you don´t have to live there to do so. It´s much easier just going to Hillhead for an event, rather than living there.

2) Unite Students

Unite Students has got the most sites of all accommodation providers in Aberdeen, especially as it has recently acquired all the sites that used to below to a company called Liberty Living. All four Liberty Living locations now belong to Unite, but you still might see them being referred to as “Liberty House” or similar.

I will run through the four ex-Liberty Living sites first, before moving on to the other Unite Students Sites.

Linksfield House (aka. Liberty House – Linksfield)

Linksfield House - Student Halls in Aberdeen - Unite Students

This is where I stayed in my first year of uni. The location is perfect in my opinion. It is right next to Aberdeen Sports Village and less than 10 minutes’ walk from uni. There is a Tesco express at the end of the road and it´s just off King Street, where all the buses go. Also, it takes approximately 15 minutes to walk to Morrisons. I always felt safe walking home from town etc. in the evenings, as you walk along the main road for 95% of the time, and also Linksfield Road is fairly busy due to ASV.

Linksfield doesn´t have the most modern of rooms. The whole site really needs a bit of TLC. But now that Unite Students has taken over the buildings, they might start renovating the rooms a little.
I was lucky though that I had amazing flatmates, which made the fact that the flat wasn´t that nice less important. The en-suite rooms are slightly bigger than the ones at New Carnegie in Hillhead (especially the ones with the double windows. If you can, you could ask for one of those). For a more detailed “review” and pictures of my time at Linksfield you can click here.
They offer rooms with shared bathrooms or en-suite rooms in flats of 7 people. Prices depend on the room type and length of stay and range from £95-101 per week.

St Peter House (aka. Liberty House St Peters)

St Peter House is also just off King Street but slightly closer to town than Linksfield House. It´s a 10-15 min walk from uni, 5-10 min from ASV and 10 min from Morrisons. They offer shared bathroom, en-suite or studio options, ranging from £85-143 per week (depending on room type and contract duration). In my opinion, this is ideal if you are looking for a place half-way between the university and city centre.

Don Street House (aka. Liberty House – Don Street)

Liberty House Don Street is very close to campus, located between campus and Hillhead Student Village. It´s quite close to Lidl, a 15 min walk from ASV but perhaps a 30 minute walk from town. They offer shared bathroom and en-suite rooms, ranging from £78-100 per week (depending on room type and contract duration).

Don Street House, Unite Students Aberdeen

Farmer´s Hall Lodge (aka. Liberty House – Rosemount)

Farmer´s Hall Lodge is located in Rosemount, a nice area of Aberdeen that is close to the city centre but slightly further away from the main university campus (King´s College). It is a roughly half-hour walk from Foresterhill though, so might be an option if you are studying Medicine and have most of your classes there. But it isn´t necessarily much closer than the other accommodation sites in Aberdeen, plus, if you are close to main campus you can get the shuttle bus service (9U) to Foresterhill.

Farmers Hall Lodge offers non en-suite, en-suite and studio rooms starting at around £85.

The next four sites on the list are the sites than have always belonged to Unite Students. All in all, I´d say their accommodation is more modern than Liberty Living´s was and some of the locations also have a common room which is nice. But as I mentioned, perhaps the old Liberty Living sites will now be given a bit of a make-over by Unite Students!

King Street Exchange

This is where I stayed during the first semester of my second year. The location is pretty good, it is directly beside campus (you can get to the MacRobert building in under 2 mins) and a 10 minute walk from Lidl and ASV. The downsides are, that it lacks a common room and that it´s next to a very busy roundabout on King Street, so sometimes it can be quite noisy with all the cars outside.

All rooms have an en-suite bathroom in flats for 4 or 6 people, or you can book a studio. I stayed in a 6-bedroom flat that had a very welcoming and spacious kitchen-come-living-room area. Prices vary depending on how early you book your room.

Click here for a more detailed review and pictures from my time at King Street Exchange!

The Old Fire Station

The Old Fire Station is located directly opposite Morrisons, and is a 20 minute walk from uni and a 10 minute walk from town. They have en-suite rooms or studio flats and a common room downstairs. The layout of the rooms will be similar to that of King Street Exchange, so make sure to check out my review of that to see some pictures!

Causeway View

I think Causeway View seems to be one of the nicest Unite Students sites in Aberdeen, but also one of the most expensive (£116-126 per week). They have en-suite rooms in flats with up to 9 people (that is quite a lot in my opinion, I had that when I stayed at the Student Roost and I wasn´t a fan).
Most activities/events organised by Unite Students (for students from all sites to attend) are held in the common rooms at Causeway View or the Old Fire Station.
Causeway View is located 20 minutes from University, 5 minutes from Morrisons and they have just opened a new Lidl there, which is also less than 5 minutes away. The city centre is only a 10 minute walk away.

Spring Gardens

Spring Gardens is just across from Causeway View. So, it is also 20 minutes from uni and just around the corner from Morrisons and Lidl. It´s also a very short walk (10 minutes) into town from there. Spring Gardens offers rooms with shared bathrooms, en-suite rooms and studio flats. There are 4-6 people in a flat and prices range from £78-167 per week, depending on the room type and length of contract.

Check out the Unite Students and Student Roost Sites in my Video below!

4) The Student Roost

This is the newest student accommodation in Aberdeen. I stayed at university walk this past semester and they have just built a brand-new building on the opposite side of the road.

Pittodrie Street (formerly known as University Walk)

The University Walk site is located on Pittodrie Street. This is where I stayed during the second semester of second year. Check out my review for more information and pictures here.

Location-wise I´d give this place 10/10! It took me 10 minutes to walk to university, 5 minutes to ASV and 10 minutes to get to Morrisons and Lidl.
The site opened it´s first building in 2018, and the extension opposite was only opened for the 2019/2020 academic year. So everything still looks shiny and new!
The staff is very friendly and there are a lot of well-designed common areas. They also organise events for tenants on a regular basis.
Pittodrie Street is a fairly quiet street, it only gets busy when a football match is on, as Pittodrie Stadium is just down the street.
All rooms have an en-suite and come in different sizes (bronze, silver, gold; prices range from £109-149 per week). There is also the possibility of renting a studio appartment.

Mealmarket Exchange

Mealmarket Exchange is located very close to town (5 minute walk), however it therefore slightly further away from the university (25 mins) and Aberdeen Sports Village (20 mins). It is therefore less expensive than its counterpart on Pittodrie Street.
If you want to be close to town then this might be a good option, otherwise I would say it is quite far away from university and you might not fancy such a long walk each day.

So which one should I chose?

Whilst the location and its proximity to local amenities is important, ultimately, the thing that will either make or break a place will be your flatmates.
Unfortunately, that is something that you don´t have a lot of control over.
My experience has been a perfect example of this; in first year I was in a less fancy place with great flatmates – so I really enjoyed it. Whereas, at the end of second year I was in a really nice and modern place, but I didn´t get along too well with some of my flatmates – so my time there less enjoyable.

Luckily, most halls ask you to fill out a questionnaire when you are booking the room, and they say they try and put you in a flat with people you are more likely to get along with.

So I´d say, go for the place that you think will suit you best and then fingers crossed that you get along with your flatmates!
Just remember – it´s not the end of the world if you don´t get along (look, I survived, too). You´ll meet loads of other people that you get on well with and you can move in with them next.

If you have any other questions about the student accommodation in Aberdeen, let me know, I´d be happy to help 🙂