Bristol Student Property

Upgrades at 48 Cromwell Road

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:09:53 +0000

We’ve had a busy few days at 48 Cromwell Road. Last year’s tenants have moved out and new tenants for 2010/11 are moving in. The house has been fairly empty (of stuff as well as people) for a few days, giving us a good opportunity to undertake some improvements and maintenance which would otherwise probably be too disruptive. Bedrooms painted, a door moved to make the small bedroom less small, cracked floor tiles in the kitchen replaced, a number of items of furniture replaced or added, carpet replaced, shelves put up. We’re hoping to get chance to paint some of the downstairs this week, after that we’ll move on to tidying up the garden.

Dulux Con

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:20:28 +0000

I like to offer rooms in good clean tidy condition. A fresh coat of paint really helps, when somebody vacates a room there will often be marks on the paintwork and this immediately makes the room look tatty. It’s a terrible waste to repaint an entire room when a few touch-ups are all that is required, so it’s important to keep enough spare paint for this. Paint ranges change regularly, you often can’t just buy a can of paint to match the can you bought a year or two ago, you can only get “this year’s colours”. I few years ago I found the solution; Dulux can mix paint to order and the range doesn’t change. The pale yellow “Desert Sunrise” that I used for a number of bedrooms in two houses will be available forever. It’s not cheap (even for a good quality paint) but it’s worth it for all the time and effort (and paint) that I’ll save by being able to get the same paint forever.

All went well until this year, when I finally ran out of my stock of Desert Sunrise and had to buy some more. It doesn’t match! I spent almost £80 to buy two 5 litre cans of paint, which I used for a couple of walls and a lot of marks on other walls. The difference wasn’t subtle, this is a much deeper shade. The girl behind the Dulux Trade Counter explained that their mixing machines are calibrated every 6 months so the col0ur will vary during that time. I don’t know whether that’s the whole truth but it doesn’t matter – I ended up repainting four whole rooms (a single coat used up most of the two cans, but there’s enough left for touch-ups).

So I won’t be buying Desert Sunrise again. Instead I’ll keep an eye out for clearance offers or special deals on quality paints at B&Q or Wickes and then I’ll use my trade card and buy a large quantity of identical cans of paint which will keep me going for a few years.

Kitchen renewal at 48 Rousham Road

admin — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 07:54:29 +0000

Today work will begin on upgrading the kitchen at 48 Rousham Road. Plans include a new tiled floor, new base units and worktops, a cooker-hood extractor fan and some extra wall insulation.

Room in centrally-heated shared house, £300 per month INCLUDING BILLS

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:22:23 +0000

This vacancy has now been filled.

The Room:
- This is a big room (4.25m by 3.1m – that’s 14ft by 10ft)
- It’s upstairs at the front of the house
- It’s fully furnished (including a pine double bed)
- It’s radiator heated and double-glazed (large window with views over the front garden), so it’s warm and cosy
- The rent is £300 pcm including bills (gas, electric, water, sewage, council tax). There is a broadband internet connection (you share the cost with other members of the household).
- The room is for single occupancy only – it’s not available for couples

About the house:
- It’s a nice warm shared house, with full gas central heating (all bill are included in your rent)
- It’s in the Eastville/Horfield/St Werburghs/Fishponds area (48 Rousham Road, BS5 6XJ)
- It’s fully furnished
- It has a kitchen (with all the usual appilances) and a large living room
- The upstairs bathroom has large shower cubicle (no bath)
- Outside there’s gardens and off-street parking (which is rarely used as there’s plenty of space on the road)
- It has a interconnected mains-wired fire alarm system and the gas central-heating is fully serviced and certified
- It’s fully double-glazed
- This is a non-smoking house – smoking is fine in the garden but never anywhere indoors
- You’ll be sharing with three others – currently the other housemates are working and in their mid 20s / 30s

About the area:
- The house is in Rousham Road (BS5 6XJ) and is on the borders of Eastville, Horfield and St Werburghs.
- About 5 minutes walk to Tesco, Ikea and thje rest of the Eastgate Centre, from where there’s also bus routes into central Bristol and surrounding areas
- Convenient for UWE (walk or cycle St Matts and Glenside, easy cycle to Frenchay)
- Convenient for major employment areas including Abbey Wood, Stoke Gifford, Parkway Station and the City Centre
- It’s in a residential area and is not on a main road.
- Easy walking distance (10 or 15 minutes) to St Werburghs, for great pubs like the Miners Arms and The Farm, great shops like The Better Food Company and Artrageous, Bristol’s best climbing wall (Undercover Rock) and other local amenities
- About half an hour’s walk (a mile and a half) to more shops, bars and pubs on Fishponds Road
- For driving there’s plenty of parking space and it’s convenient for the M32, the city centre (via Glenfrome Road or M32), Fishponds Road and Gloucester Road (via Muller Road)
- For public transport, nearby busses go to many locations including Gloucester Road, Horfield, Fishponds, the City Centre and Temple Meads and Parkway railway stations
- This isn’t a city-centre or high-street location, if you want to be right next to pubs/bars/clubs or local shopping (other than Tesco/Ikea/etc) then this house may not be for you

The small-print:
- The house is shared but each person has a separate contract – so you’re never responsible for somebody else’s unpaid rent.
- As the bills are included, they are paid by the landlord so you’re not responsible for unpaid utility bills.
- You pay a deposit which is held by The Deposit Protection Service against unpaid rent (your own rent only, not other people’s), lost keys and damage/cleaning.
- I normally use a standard 6-month minimum contract but if you want something shorter I’m happy to agree a minimum let of 3 months.
- A deposit of £300 is required (will be held for you by the Deposit Protection Service)

Click here for full details and lots of photos of the house

Please phone 07976 238591 or email for more information or to arrange viewings (NO CALLS FROM AGENCIES PLEASE).

Going Green at 48 Rousham Road

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:32:07 +0000

Over the years I’ve been upgrading 48 Rousham Road to be more and more environmentally friendly.Isn’t it unfair that many landlords won’t pay for energy-saving features because they don’t have to play the bills? This isn’t the case at 48 Rousham Road, the bills are included in your rent so I have a vested interest in making it as energy-efficient as possible. That’s not the only reason I do it of course – I’m committed to living in an environmentally sustainable way and I hope my tenants will do the same.

Here’s some of the features I’ve had added:

Energy-saving double-glazing throughout
100% renewable electricity and gas supplied by Good Energy (rated as greener than most suppliers ‘green tariff’)
Cycle parking / storage – the large basement is weather-proof and secure, an ideal place to keep your bike and cycling stuff. It’s an easy cycle ride into town or to UWE or major employers (like Abbey Wood, HP, Sun Life). When I need to visit Rousham Road I almost always cycle there rather than driving.
Low energy lighting
Low VOC (‘breathe-easy’) paints used in all rooms (far less toxic and environmentally-damaging chemicals)
Modern energy-efficient gas boiler
Highly insulated hot water tank
Deep insulation in the loft
Draft-proofing
Tried to get cavity wall insulation – but after some measuring the insulation company told me that the house doesn’t have cavity walls!
Thermostatic radiator valves, room thermostat and water thermostat (lets you control the temperature so the boiler is only running when you want it to)
Ceiling-level extractor fan above shower cubicle (saves heating because there’s no need to open the window in winter to clear the steam)
Bath replaced by shower (saves water)

Other things I’m planning include this year (2010):

Some internal cladding, to make the walls better insulated in key areas
Controlled ventilation in the kitchen (further reducing the need to open windows when it’s cold outside)
Extra cycle locking point at the front of the house

Agencies – please stop calling me!

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:09:32 +0000

I’m getting calls from letting agencies most days – they all want to find tenants for me. Agencies, please STOP IT!

Agencies typically want to charge tenants about a third of a month’s rent – that could be about £450 on a four bedroom house. For this they show you the house, take your deposit, check your references, etc. Did you ever notice that the agent often doesn’t know much about the house? And wouldn’t you rather meet the landlord and find out what s/he’s like before you commit to living there?

Bristol Student Properties is a small-scale landlord, not an agency and not a big commercial company. Tenants will NOT be charged any agency fees on our properties and you will be shown the property by the landlord who can answer all the questions that letting agents can’t.

So tenants, save yourself a third of a month’s rent by renting from Bristol Student Properties.

And agents, please don’t call us, we’re not interested!

Maintenance schedule (48 Cromwell Road)

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:20:32 +0000

Our maintenance plans for the next 6 months at 48 Cromwell are:

replace carpet on first floor landing steps
redecorate kitchen (paint walls and ceiling, general tidy up)
repaint ground-floor entrance hall
replace kitchen sink and adjacent worktop
replace broken kitchen floor tile
prune trees / shrubs

And for later in the summer:

exterior repairs (masonary / paintwork)
full tidy-up of garden

4-bed house available 1st July 2010 for 12 months

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:40:06 +0000

This is the advert that is currently on Gumtree:

This 4-bedroom house is available from 1st July 2010 for a group of four students for 12 months (or can be available to non-students but fixed-term 12 month contract still required).

- Located in Cromwell Road, St Andrews
- 4 minutes walk from The Arches on Gloucester Road
- Very handy for shops/pubs/cafes on Gloucester Road and city centre
- 4 minutes walk to buses (including U1/U2 to UWE)

Downstairs: there’s a large living room, large kitchen/diner (washing machine, drier, hob, oven, fridge/freezer, microwave, etc) and two bathrooms (each with shower, toilet and sink), and a hallway where you could keep bikes etc.

Upstairs: there’s four bedrooms – three with double beds, one with a queen-sized bed (which is 180cm wide, mid-way between single and double).

Outside: there’s one parking space on the drive (you can squeeze two cars in if you’re careful) and a good sized garden at the back.

Gas central heating, fully double-glazed, fire-alarmed and fully certified. The house is fully furnished. For your security, deposits are held with the Deposit Protection Service

The rent for the house is £1340 plus bills per month (that’s £335 per room per month, plus shared bills). Deposit of one month’s rent required. The contract will be for 12 months starting from 1st July 2010. This house is available to a group only, not as individual rooms, so find some friends!

More details and loads of photos on my website

Viewings available now (daytime or early evening, 7 days a week).

If you’re interested then please contact me to arrange a viewing time. There are no agency fees – you deal directly with the landlord.

Note that the bedrooms are different sizes – most groups chose to divide the rent according to thge size of room, so for example you might want to pay £350, £340, £330 and £320 rather than all paying £335. It’s up to you, I don’t mind as long as it adds up to £1340.

The bills are:

Electricity and gas: (can be quite low if you just use what you need – the house is double-glazed and the boiler is modern so heating bills needn’t be too high)
Council tax: free if you’re students – hurrah! (if you’re not then the council tax the bill for 2009/2010 would be £99.30 per month)
Internet, cable TV, phone: the house has a Virgin Media cable connection, they do some very good student deals and their Internet connections are very fast (but their customer service is the worst ever!)
Water: about £30 per month (based on 2009 figures)

Student house for 2009/10 – Gloucester Road

admin — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:05:31 +0000

This house (48 Cromwell Road, BS6 5HB) is available from 1st July 2009 for a group of four students for the 2009/10 academic year.

Very popular student area: Cromwell Road, Montpelier (just off Gloucester Road)
4 minutes walk from Gloucester Road and buses (including U1/U2 to UWE)
Very handy for shops/pubs/cafes on Gloucester Road and city centre

Large living room, kitchen/diner, two shower rooms, garden, off-street parking. Fully furnished, gas central heating, double glazing. More details and loads of photos on this website (www.bristolstudentproperty.co.uk)

£1380 plus bills per month (that’s £345 per room per month, plus shared bills).

This house is available to a group only, not as individual rooms, so find some friends!

Viewings available NOW (daytime or early evening, 7 days a week).

If you’re interested then please contact me to book a viewing time, phone Gavin on 07976 238591.

A new web site for BSP

admin — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:47:40 +0000

This new website was produced for Bristol Student Properties by GASP Solutions Ltd