The phrase “luxury apartment buildings” gets tossed around a lot, especially with the rise of the five over twos in urban areas that manage to squeeze hundreds of residents into their building with promise of high-end amenities. But what if you’re a college student? You’re likely not shacking up in a high-rise building while attending college—part of the charm of the college experience is renting out a spacious three-bedroom rental home with your friends or finding that quaint, unassuming one-bedroom rental right around the corner from campus.
So, how can you still have luxury living and find a top-notch rental home while attending school? There are plenty of ways that make a college pad a rental home that’s the epitome of luxury. Luxury is subjective, and it all boils down to what sets things apart from other student rental properties in the area.
A Backyard Space to Call Your Own
One of the first things that’s going to immediately up the luxury factor on that two-story rental home next to Ohio University that you’ve been searching for is having some sort of green space. While Athens is pretty lush as is, it’s fully a luxury to be able to have a sweet rental home that has a spacious backyard attached to it.
Having your own space to enjoy outdoors without having to share it with complete strangers is kind of monumental and doesn’t always happen with city and college living. You have the chance to decorate your outdoor space and make it just how you want it—set up a hammock between some trees, hang some string lights, and find some outdoor seating that gets the job done. Suddenly you’ve got yourself a perfect rental spot with a well-maintained backyard that’s about to be the envy of everyone around you.
You can use your extra space to decompress after a long day of classes, get together with some friends outside for a chill evening, or you could even throw a party—after all, you’ve certainly got the space for it, and everyone loves an outdoor party.
Prime Locations are Luxurious Too
The aforementioned high-rise luxury buildings are usually put in desirable areas with lots of things to do. The college version of a high-end rental home perfect for Ohio University students is—of course—going to be a spot located around Uptown Athens. It’s the main drag of the city where everything happens, and if you’re looking to live a college life of luxury, it’s where you’re going to want to be.
Finding a perfectly-sized student rental home in the Uptown area gives you complete access to nearly anything you would want to do in Athens. Location is everything, and that spacious two-bedroom rental apartment right along Court Street is going to provide that. You’ll have the entire city at your fingertips, and that includes all of the best student-friendly bars and restaurants in the immediate area—and there a ton of those. You’ll also have some of the best shopping in the city, being right around the corner from various boutiques and locally-owned shops that have been serving the Athens community for years.
When you’re walking back to that Court Street studio apartment after being out late into the night with friends, “luxury” is suddenly going to mean “not having to hike hills in the dead of night while still slightly intoxicated.” See? Luxury really is subjective and situational.
Being in a prime spot like Uptown also means that you’re going to basically be about a five-minute walk away from campus. This is ideal whether you’re the academic type or the I’m-usually-five-minutes-late-to-my-first-class type. Being able to run over to campus quicker than most other students is also an excellent example of luxury living in college. If you’re someone who begrudgingly takes 8am classes to be able to end the school day early, you could roll out of bed at 7:45, run out the door of your conveniently-located apartment, and still make it to class with a minute or two to spare. Someone living all the way out in a student rental on East State Street isn’t going to have the same luxury as you here.
Included or On-Site Appliances
Anyone who has ever rented a home or apartment that doesn’t come with an included washer and dryer can attest that having to carve out time to run to the nearest laundromat is one of the worst burdens of renting. If you have multiple loads to run, you’re going to find yourself stuck at the laundromat for at least a couple of hours.
However, if you’re one of the lucky ones whose best-located rental home with four bedrooms also includes a laundry hookup, well, you’re living a life of luxury compared to fellow college students. In cases like these, your student rental close to Ohio University is saving you a ton of time by having an on-site washer and dryer. You have the luxury of being able to throw your laundry in the washer, leave it, go run an errand or do some chores around the house, and come back to your clothes at your own convenience. You don’t need to wait around for someone else to finish up their laundry (well, unless you have roommates) or hang around to make sure no one takes any of your items by mistake.
Having appliance hookups or having on-site machines makes college life—and life in general—way easier, and it’s a major time saver. Many would even go as far to say that time is one of the ultimate luxuries in life, and the best college rental homes around campus are the ones that help you recoup potentially lost time driving to and from a laundromat.
Luxury is in the eyes of the beholder, and when you’re in school, luxury can be nearly anything that sets your perfect rental home for college apart from the others—whether that’s location, the inclusion of a fenced-in backyard, being able to save on time, or something else entirely.