By: Audrey Ring
As the school year approaches the halfway point, University of Maryland students are rushing to sign leases for the 2025-2026 school year.
Some of the apartment complexes near campus include Hub College Park, Union on Knox, Landmark, The Standard, Domain College Park, Tempo College Park and Terrapin Row. Although all of these apartments are within walking distance of one another, their prices and availability vary.
These apartment buildings specifically lack accommodations for groups of five. According to their websites, Hub offers a five-by-four unit, and the Standard is sold out of two of its five-by-five apartments and has only partial availability in others. Union on Knox, Landmark and Terrapin Row do not offer five-by-five layouts.
UMD student Jake Battagliese, who currently lives at Hub, is searching for an apartment that can house him and four other students.
“It’s been very difficult to be able to find a five-by-five as they sell out so fast and are rare to begin with as few apartment complexes have those units available. Even if they do, they are also very expensive since they are rare, so it’s been hard to find the right fit, and nearly impossible to find a five-by-five,” Battagliese said.
While availability is a major concern, the price of these apartment complexes create another hurdle. Rent varies widely between the different buildings and even within the same unit type, depending on the room.
For instance, at Hub, the four-by-three standard unit has four different rent prices, ranging from $1325 per month for the cheapest room to $1455 for the most expensive rooms.
For out-of-state students, rent adds an additional challenge on top of already high tuition costs. For UMD sophomore Scotty Chen, who is responsible for paying his own rent, the financial strain is significant.
“Having to carry the financial burden of the already inflated rent prices has been extremely stressful and now that the prices have universally gone up, it’s made looking for off campus living within my budget near impossible,” Chen said.
While options remain limited, students say that planning early and looking at off-campus alternatives are a few ways to find affordable, larger unit apartments in College Park.