03.04.06 "Flat" hunting

We have to rent a "flat" to live in while I'm at school. This, like many other aspects of our move, seems to be more difficult than it ought to be. Normally, students live in a college when attending Oxford. These are sort of like a Harry Potter Frat House / Dormitory, but there's quite a bit more to it than that, check out the deets here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colleges_of_the_University_of_Oxford

Obviously, my wife wasn't too excited about the prospect of living in a residential hall setting, so that got vetoed quickly. It turns out that most of the colleges have special married student accommodations away from the main college, but that really didn't fit for us either. Apparently you don't get to see what they're like before you move in ("because the current residents are still in them" ...classic Oxford reasoning), and we would have no idea if we could get a place with an extra bedroom for visiting friends and family. So, it has to be an apartment. This would be fine, except it is not at all clear when I should go apartment hunting. I have been told all of the following, by different people, regarding the subject of "flats" in Oxford:

• "it's not possible to say when the best time to go flat hunting is until they come up free"
• "there are some flats across the street from the SBS, I'll look into them for you" (never heard back on this one)
• "we released 150 apartments for the 2006/2007 school year in December, and there are two left (this was in February)
• "other SBS students haven't even begun to look into rentals at this point"
• etc.

So, with lots of conflicting info, and nothing firm, I am taking the spam approach, and writing to any letting agency we can find, asking about good times to come and look for a rental.

In no particular order...

http://www.rentaflat.co.uk/

http://www.collegeandcounty.biz/index.html

http://www.qbman.co.uk/

http://www.hamptons.co.uk/

http://www.nops.co.uk/

http://www.medicsonthemove.co.uk/index.html

http://www.manorhouseproperties.co.uk/home.mhtml?count-num=127332

http://www.elwood.co.uk/

http://www.thomasmerrifield.co.uk/

http://www.spaceagency.co.uk/index.php

http://www.letting-agents-uk.org.uk/agent.asp?id=8403

http://www.lucyproperties.co.uk/

http://www.email4property.co.uk/oxford/form_letting.htm

...hopefully something will pan out.