Central Square

If something goes to make way for more commercial space in Central Square it will be the private resi as opposed to the student resi I think. Apparently rates of return on student resi are a couple of percentage points higher than private resi at the moment - at least in prime student sites.

To see why, you get students paying £120 a week for a pretty small en-suite room and access to a shared kitchen/lounge. OK you get internet and other utilities included. But, say £15 a week for that tops... So net rent of £105 a week, or £450 a month. You get 6 of these students in a cluster flat and thats £2,700 a month. You could rent two three-bed houses for something like what, £1,600 a month?

I don't really see why students are choosing these student blocks given the excessing rents. Is it simply that the current generation of students just aren't ready for the big bad world where you have to pay your own bills? Or is an ensuite room really worth that much more?

Good news re: 1 Central Square. I think 2 Central Square should be at least partially let soon. The fact they increased the size in the submission of reserved matters suggests there is significant interest. Whether or not it will be LG I'm not so sure. Might they move part of their workforce there and occupy part of the building? Keep the staff carrying out simpler, less well-remunerated staff in older cheaper accomodation (and actually Queen St might be a better location for many of the workers commuting down from the Valleys).

My niece is in Uni in Swansea and is paying a daft amount for rent in one of these plush schemes compared to slumming it in a house like I did all those years ago in Ponty. On one hand I understand the appeal, it looks nice, is well looked after and the place she's at is so much more secure than it could be, but on the other hand she's 20 and I do agree with you - I think it's delaying the growing up. At that age I was doing my sandwich/third year in London living in a shitty house with a few other people a few hours from my parents, paying all my own bills and pissing all my spare cash up the wall in central London every weekend. Don't get me wrong I don't want her, or my son when his time comes, to be living in a shithole but it's wasting the little amount of money she earns from her two jobs. It's her life I guess.

Do I get the feeling that there is a concerted effort going on to move students from Cathays to the city centre. There certainly seems to be a feeling that it's not the old Cathays any more. And of course there is a logic to the idea that if you can cram lots of students into these towers, you then have more houses available for families in the suburbs. I don't think student numbers have been growing much lately.

I still wonder whether it's a great idea to have all these kids who've just left home for the first time occupying these massive tower blocks - just thinking back to my own student days really. Also they are rather further away from most university facilities. Perhaps students are generally more concerned with being near town than the lecture halls!

Do I get the feeling that there is a concerted effort going on to move students from Cathays to the city centre. There certainly seems to be a feeling that it's not the old Cathays any more. And of course there is a logic to the idea that if you can cram lots of students into these towers, you then have more houses available for families in the suburbs. I don't think student numbers have been growing much lately.

I still wonder whether it's a great idea to have all these kids who've just left home for the first time occupying these massive tower blocks - just thinking back to my own student days really. Also they are rather further away from most university facilities. Perhaps students are generally more concerned with being near town than the lecture halls!

Why don't you think it's a good idea, you keep saying it without giving any reason why you think it's a bad idea ? Do you think it's unsafe for some reason ?

Also each of the residential schemes are within a 20 minute walk to most of the city campus sites. What's wrong with that, they generally all have functioning legs don't they ? Those that don't won't choose to live far from the campus.
I lived a good 15-20 minutes walk from Uni, the walk does you good. That's half the bloody problem in the UK, people are lazy as shit.

That's half the bloody problem in the UK, people are lazy as shit.

That made me chuckle, and bang on too.

Do I get the feeling that there is a concerted effort going on to move students from Cathays to the city centre.

Note the comment: "This allows us to bring more family ownership into areas like Cathays, Roath and Plasnewydd, which is very important."
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales ... t-10576200

I actually think this is a very positive development for Cardiff. Too many properties in Cathays, Roath and Plasnewydd have become run down and empty half of the year. These buy-to-let landlords don't maintain these properties and don't care if rows and rows of houses end up looking like slums, quite frankly. Look at the mess left in the streets during the annual student clean out. Think of people coming into the city, off the A48 and heading towards town, it looks AWFUL and not a good image for Cardiff!

Also, having all these housing tied up and half empty isn't great when we have a housing shortage, people are stuggling to get on the property ladder and developers are sitting on land for years on end.

Lets fill some vacant inner city plots, added to mixed developments and bring some life into parts of the city centre, then areas like Cathays and Roath can see family-based communitees again.

But I wish people would stop romanticising their student experience. I'd rather see my nephews and nieces going into a clean, well maintained, managed and secure accomodation where there is some sort of community, than trying to find something from a dodgey landlord and sharing with complete strangers in a city that they don't know.

sharing with complete strangers in a city that they don't know.

How did I survive? The thing about complete strangers is they end up being your friends!!

How did I survive? The thing about complete strangers is they end up being your friends!!

I agree and I'm still from friends with the people I shared a house with during my university days. But the point being, that was organised by my College before I arrived and they managed the situation. I didn't have to take on a lease or something with a bunch of people I didn't know.

Not everyone is so lucky, or confident or whatever. People are different and just because someone doesn't want their student experience to be like a series of Rising Damp or Porterhouse Blue, doesn't mean they're somehow weak or sheltered.

Can't have this falling off the front page - so this little video rescues it from such a fate! from a RIO Architects tweet

tried to embed it but failed miserably

https://twitter.com/PhilRoberts360/status/713002801606107136

Actually there's some great stuff on Phillip Roberts website...

http://www.philliprobertsphotography.com/ the central square 360 and the new cardiff city stand drone video caught my eye!

Paul

Can I ask that when we click a link it opens a new tab rather than takes us off this page. Its not a biggie I will grant you but it is the little things in life that make it worth living...