Living at home during University

Hello,

I've recently moved to University and only just realised how much time is spent at home during the term holidays.

My family have also moved out of my hometown where all my friends are to a new town and as a result, when I go back over the holidays I'll likely stay with them. However, I know no one in that area and it's quite far from my hometown.

I'd ideally like to go back and spend the vast majority of my holidays with my friends. However, this might be too expensive accommodation-wise.

One potential alternative I thought up was to use some inheritance money I have from a bereavement to buy a small flat in my hometown; it would be within my means to do so, however I wouldn't want this to sit unoccupied for months of the year so I was thinking I could let it out to someone whilst I'm away who I would then come and stay with other the holidays.

This way I would be doing something with the money rather than have it sitting and gathering inflation and it could save me on the cost as hopefully letting it out would help cover a significant portion of the cost.

Is this something that anyone does? Is there a cheaper less risky solution? Is anyone in a similar situation?

Thanks!