The cheapest standard self-catered room Royal Holloway, University of London publishes costs £135 a week, up to £258 for the dearest (2026/27). The maximum maintenance loan outside London is £10,830 a year — £208 a week across a full year.
| Cheapest self-catered room | £135/week |
| Dearest standard room | £258/week |
| Typical contract | 38 weeks |
| Cheapest room, whole contract | £5,123 |
| Dearest room, whole contract | £9,797 |
| Max maintenance loan (outside London, 2026/27) | £10,830/year |
| Cheapest hall as share of max loan | 47% |
Official UG hall fee PDF (prices correct as of Feb 2026) publishes let length, three termly instalments, weekly price and annual total. All halls confirmed self-catered on the hall pages, with meal plans sold separately. Low = Penrose Court £134.82 (38wk, £5,123.16) — single room with sink in a 4-6 person self-catered flat. High = Gowar, Wedderburn, Williamson, Tuke and Butler at £257.81 (38wk, £9,796.78), all single en-suite. Others: Founder's large single £245.07, Reid £241.36, George Eliot £243.60, Runnymede 1 £230.16, Runnymede 2 £205.10, Highfield Court £204.26, Founder's single £204.96. Excluded: Founder's shared room £111.02 (two sharers). George Eliot also offered on a 30-week contract at £241.28/wk. Outer-London location — noticeably cheaper than the four central-London institutions below.
Take the maximum loan, pay for the cheapest hall, and £5,707 remains for the year — £110 a week across 52 weeks for food, transport, books and everything else. Most students don't get the maximum loan: entitlement tapers with household income, so the real gap is usually wider and made up by part-time work or family.
The 11 universities nearest Royal Holloway, University of London on cheapest published room, plus the cheapest and dearest of all 37. The full table has every one.
| University | From | To | % of max loan |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Warwick | £128 | £255 | 47% |
| Keele University | £128 | £232 | 45% |
| University of Glasgow | £130 | £225 | 47% |
| Cardiff University | £132 | £200 | 49% |
| University of Strathclyde | £133 | £182 | 48% |
| Royal Holloway, University of London | £135 | £258 | 47% |
| University of Bristol | £136 | £280 | 48% |
| University of Surrey | £138 | £247 | 48% |
| Lancaster University | £139 | £206 | 51% |
| University of Plymouth | £141 | £233 | 53% |
| University of York | £149 | £251 | 55% |
| University of Bath | £98 | £295 | 34% |
| London School of Economics (LSE) | £226 | £391 | 79% |
University-published self-catered rooms run £135–£258 a week for 2026/27, on contracts of about 38 weeks.
The maximum loan (outside London) covers the cheapest hall with £5,707 a year to spare — but only at the maximum, which most students don't get.
No — these are the university's own halls, from its own price list. Private halls and shared houses vary more in both directions; the university figures are the ones that are actually published and comparable.
Rents read 18 August 2026 from royalholloway.ac.uk; loan maxima from GOV.UK. Loan entitlement depends on household income and where the student lives, not where the university is.
Rents checked 19 August 2026 from each university's own pricing pages; loans from GOV.UK. This is information, not financial advice.