The Vale Village

Reviews

Anonymous

Maple Bank Great value for money overall. Rooms are decent, new bathrooms which are nice. Separate shower and 2 toilets which is good. Kitchens are very small but workable. Social environment is great as you are in smaller blocks so very easy to interact with your block members. One of the more social halls but also had some quiet flats arou d. Caters for everyone

Anonymous

Peng. So very peng, Views? Peng. Proximity to stuff? Peng. Joggers and dog walkers? Peng. The residents of 115 2014/15? Peng

Anonymous

The halls are massively overpriced for what they were. I have a dark room on the lower ground level that is always dusty no matter how much I clean, one of the windows is broken, the bathroom door is also the wardrobe door so if I have one closed the other is open, and the wet room means that my floor is constantly wet as it slopes in the wrong direction for the drain. What’s more, the building works have left my water brown, and there is a notable lack of cupboard space despite the huge kitchen, and the fridges are ridiculously tiny. The hob, too, is half broken and it is impossible to tell when it’s on. Honestly would not recommend.

Anonymous

It is close to the uni, and is a nice green walk. The vale village has a hub which is very social, with a great student bar. The lake is beautiful and i often cycle around it to take a break from work. We have had issues with maintenance (eg no hot water for a week) which took a while to fix, but it is overall a brilliant accomodation. I'm in tennis courts green community and I love it.

Anonymous

Live in Chamberlain tower and the rooms/ general flat is amazing - very luxurious for student living! Everyone in the vale accommodations are close together and surround a lake, which is so nice to relax by.

Anonymous

Was brand new so no complaints at all with the room! Accommodation should of been ready for September however wasn’t completely finished until February and no compensation was paid.

Anonymous

I was in Mason which is known as one of the “posher” halls. However, I was very lucky with my flat and block and made great friends. The rooms are great with en suite and they’re the closest to uni (on the vale). If I had to choose again, I would go for Tennis Courts as it is a gaurenteed good time.

Anonymous

Halls close to university however not very close to the centre. It is very sociable and there are lots of things to get involved in.

Anonymous

Absolutely class, great social side with the pub and then very close walk to campus, beautiful scenery, very clean and the rooms are nice and big

Anonymous

Good location and facilities were decent, but it's a little expensive considering that there's only 3 laundry rooms for the whole village.

Anonymous

The location is in a nice, pretty setting. Everything’s is near by like the hub and the Duck. The rooms are nice although there have been a few problems with electricity and showers not working all of the time. Meal plan is unfortunately very expensive.

Anonymous

The location of the vale was good in terms of distance to uni (20 minute walk) however it was far from supermarkets and shops, making shopping inconvenient. If you had an emergency and ran out of loo roll or something like that, you could go to the costcutter on the vale but it was very overpriced. The good thing about the vale though was that the different accommodation blocks were very close together, you could walk across the whole thing in 5 mins. The green landscape was absolutely beautiful and was great in the summer when you wanted to get some fresh air when taking a break from exam revision. I lived in chamberlain so I had a large room with plenty of storage. The layout of the flats was good and the maintenance team were able to fix problems within a day or two. Despite this, it's still not worth the price. I paid nearly £8000 for 9 months of accommodation, it did include the 'meal plan' however that did not cover all my meals so I would still have to buy my own food for breakfast or lunch anyway. It was nice, but unaffordable.

Anonymous

I thought that the rooms were very modern, however the en suites were more of a wet room than a bathroom. The layout of the kitchen was really awkward too, with it being a long rectangle, meaning that you couldn't socialise while cooking, as the people eating were the other end of the room. Location was good, closest to campus, but was not worth what we paid.

Anonymous

Lots of friendly people and stuff to do. Good location to the pub and covenience store however is far from any real supermarkets. Basic rooms and kitchen for the price however is very liveable.

Anonymous

Nice place with lots of friendly people. Convenient having a store in the village as well as the different restaurants and pub. Basic rooms for how expensive they are. Any problems are not quickly fixed when reported.

Anonymous

Overall absolutely great accommodation! Met my best friends through It. The facilities are great, laundry is very close. The kitchen and common room in each flat is amazing - very comfortable and spacious.

Anonymous

I lived in Mason which is part of the Vale Village, it's close to campus (around a 15 minute walk), all rooms had an ensuite and we were self-catered. It was expensive but not too much more than paying for a house plus you get an ensuite. The kitchen was big but lacked storage space (we had one cupboard each). Maintenance was carried out quickly and was generally good. Security was very good. Only issues were proximity to a supermarket to buy groceries, the closest shop was Spar and they raised their prices, and also washing machines were far away and expensive to run.

Anonymous

The Vale is an amazing location with lots of halls to choose from - really good value for money and very sociable

Anonymous

I was in chamberlain main tower. The facilities were nice and on a whole a positive experience. However, I hated the flat I was in and didn’t get along to any of the people within it due to language barriers (I was the only English speaker bar one other girl who basically lived at home). I think there needs to be a better system for matching people with flatmates, luckily I made friends with another flat in chamberlain c and they basically adopted me into their flat. I also made friends with the flat below and are living with them this year which is 1000 times better

Anonymous

Location was excellent, it was only a 10 minute walk to get into university. Facilities were good and sufficient and the bedrooms were a good size. The blocks were the perfect size as there were thirty people in a block which was a perfect amount for making friends not too big that you couldn’t get to know everyone and not too small that you only make a few friends.

Anonymous

Amazing atmosphere, nice little student village with a really pretty lake but still close enough to Birmingham city centre and the University campus so you really get a great environment to settle into as a fresher.

Anonymous

For the price I pay, the room is not exactly the best. I’ve calculated that for approximately £5 extra per week I could have a personal studio in some other accommodations in Selly Oak. The kitchen is not very well designed, especially as the appliances are poor. However the room itself is nice, and the services available in the Vale village are pretty up to standard.

Anonymous

The vale really caters for everyone - there’s loads of price ranges and all sorts of options: shared facilities, ensuites, catered and self catered. All the halls are built on beautiful parkland around a lake and its only about 15 minutes from campus, with a purpose-built path built between the two. I always feel safe on the vale, even in the middle of the night. The only downside is the distance from town. It is walkable - you can get to broad street (the main clubs) in 20 minutes but it takes about 45 to get to the centre, unless you get the train from university station (about 5 minutes).

Anonymous

I love the vale as it’s a proper little community. It’s all for first years and is built in parkland around a lake. It feels so safe even in the middle of the night and has a path built straight to campus with security measures. The halls accommodate everyone, with pretty wide price ranges and different styles - shared facilities, ensuites, meal plan and self catered. They always have events on, such as the Easter egg hunt and petting zoo that happened before Easter break. It’s such a lovely place to live!