Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
First year University of Canterbury students are being forced to go flatting as capacity in the university's halls of residence is at a peak.
Enrolment at UC went over 22,000 at the start of this year - up 20 percent from five years ago.
But that has meant more than 4000 students have applied for spots in the first year halls when there are only 2083 spaces available.
With so many students forced to look elsewhere to live, flats have also become harder to come by.
Brie is due to begin her studies in social work at the Christchurch campus in February, but over a month after applying, she is still on the wait list for the University of Canterbury's Ilam Apartments.
"It's not really ideal, especially when I've been saving for halls specifically, and I got really excited and then when we went to open day, one of the RAs [residential adviser] from one of the halls was like 'if you put this hall first, you'll definitely get in'."
She was worried she would not have the same experience as her friends who lived in the halls this year if she went flatting in her first year.
"It's all right, I'll be okay, but it's not really what I wanted. I saw a lot of my friends this year go through halls and how exciting that was.
"They got to do inter-hall stuff and they had really cool things on all of their floors."
Originally from Dunedin, she said Christchurch seemed to have a good balance between the party culture and studying. When she visited the city she noticed the flats were generally nicer than Dunedin, and rent was cheaper than Auckland and Wellington.
"Christchurch is a good balance. Obviously students will go out and stuff, but it's not as crazy as Otago."
Liam Mort, a Year 13 student from Wellington, will likely have to flat in his first year as he was still on the wait list for another hall of residence called Arcady Hall.
"I'm a bit nervous about it, but I'm very open to it. I've heard a lot of mixed things about the flatting and the halls."
Mort said he was really keen to study in Christchurch.
"I'm going to be studying astronomy and Canterbury is the only place that offers it in the country, so that's where I had to go."
Miriama Kirby said because more people needed flats, it had become much tougher to find one. After a long search she eventually found a place a 20-minute drive from the university.
"We didn't get any of those student flats that we viewed, we applied for about 20 and got one yes."
Between 2018 and 2023, there has been a 3.4 percent increase in the number of 15- to 29-year-olds in Christchurch, according to latest Census data.
Reassurance over chances to socialise
University of Canterbury Student Association president Luc Mackay said while there were some drawbacks about not going into halls in first year, students would not miss out on socialising.
"I think a lot of people are nervous because you don't get those '30 people on the floor' experiences. But what you do still get is the campus culture.
"Socially wise, I don't think you miss out on very much at all. I think I'm a really good example of that, of not living in halls and I was never in halls and yet my social life absolutely flourished."
He said students get a sense of belonging through the university's many clubs, such as the Canterbury University Boardriders Association and Lads Without Labels.
"Clubs, for example CUBA JIB is a really great example of why our club culture is so strong.
"They set up a ski ramp in our car park every year, which is really awesome and people ski down it. Lads Without Labels' Run 72 is an example of something that can only really be done here just because of the campus that we have.
"It's so central and it's so green and it's so easy to move around. We've got people running laps for 72 hours straight, raising support and money for men's mental health."
University of Canterbury said in a statement it was still at the early stages of the halls of residence application and placement process and the wait list will continue to decrease as more offers were accepted once NCEA results were released.
It said the university was assessing the needs of future students across all areas, including on campus accommodation.