8 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Signing Your Tenancy This Summer

Finding a place to live in the city center during the peak of summer can be a whirlwind! It’s incredibly easy to get swept up in the panic. You view a place, the windows look big, the kitchen counters look clean, and you rush to put down a deposit before someone else snaps it up.

But a tenancy isn’t just a roof over your head; it’s an investment in your day-to-day, your social life, and your peace of mind. A few months into a standard tenancy, the initial excitement fades, and the hidden friction points of poorly managed city living start to show. 

Before you sign on the dotted line this July, step back from the frenzy and make sure to ask yourself these 8 important questions:

1. “Am I paying a hidden second rent in gym memberships?”

When you are calculating your monthly budget, it’s easy to look at the rent figure in isolation. But if you are planning to spend £40 to £80 a month on a commercial gym membership in central Manchester, you need to factor that into your apartment math. Before signing a tenancy, look closely at the building’s wellness facilities. Is it just a sad, windowless room with two squeaky treadmills, or is it a fully equipped, luxury fitness center? Choosing a development with a gym, yoga studio, or wellness space included in your rent doesn’t just save you money, it eliminates the friction of traveling to a workout in the dark winter months.

2. “Does ‘WFH-friendly’ mean working from my kitchen island, or do I have an actual workspace?”

Working from home in a standard one-bedroom apartment gets claustrophobic incredibly fast. By November, staring at the same four walls where you sleep, eat, and take Zoom calls can take a massive toll on your mental health. A truly modern apartment building shouldn’t expect you to crowd your living space with a desk. Instead, ask if the development offers dedicated co-working facilities. Look for soundproof video-call booths, hot-desking zones with enterprise-grade Wi-Fi, and resident lounges where you can easily shift your environment when the afternoon slump hits.

3. “What actually happens to my packages when I’m out of the apartment?”

It sounds like a minor detail, but package management is one of the single biggest daily frustrations of city living. If a building relies on a standard wall intercom, missed deliveries, stolen boxes from communal hallways and Saturday morning treks to a distant sorting office become your baseline reality. 

Ask the lettings team how deliveries are handled securely. A premium development should feature a 24-hour concierge team or an automated, secure parcel locker system that logs your packages and alerts you when they arrive.

4. “Will my pet be treated like a resident, or an administrative headache?”

If you are moving with a four-legged companion, you already know the dread of filtering property sites by “pets allowed,” only to find the options to almost zero. Many city-center landlords either ban pets outright or hide steep “pet rent” and extortionate extra deposits in the small print. When choosing your next space, ask the lettings team directly about their culture around animals. Are pets merely tolerated or are they genuinely welcomed into the community? 

At Select Residential, we believe a home isn’t a home without them, which is why buildings like Affinity Living operate with a strict zero-pet-fee policy, regardless of your dog’s size or breed. Look for communities that offer dedicated pet-friendly amenities, pet-focused resident mixers, and staff who actually know your dog’s name.

5. “Am I allowed to put my own stamp on the walls, or am I renting a blank white box?“

Living in a sterile, white-walled box for years can make a place feel temporary and cold. Ask upfront about the landlord’s policy on customisation. A progressive property operator understands that personalisation breeds a sense of belonging. Look for landlords who give you explicit permission to paint accent walls, hang artwork, and arrange the space to match your personality. At Select residential we love to see how you have transformed our developments to make them your own, like one of our Affinity Living residents.

6. “How much will I spend on taxis and Ubers just to get to my social life?”

An apartment located a 25-minute walk outside the city centre might save you £100 a month on rent, but it’s a false economy if you end up spending double that on late-night Ubers, rainy morning tram fares, and rushed commutes. Calculate the proximity of the building to your actual life. Can you walk to the Northern Quarter, Ancoats or your office within 10 minutes? True city-centre walkability is a luxury that buys you back the most valuable asset you have: time.

7. “Does the building have an organic community, or just quiet neighbours?”

Moving to a new city, graduating, or starting a new job can be an isolating experience. Living in a traditional block of flats often means passing strangers in a corridor without ever learning their names. If you value your social life, ask the letting team about their community engagement. Do they host regular resident events, rooftop mixers and workshops? A building that hosts dozens of curated events a year turns neighbours into friends and transforms a physical building into a genuine vertical neighbourhood.

8. “Am I just paying for a flat, or am I buying into an entire lifestyle ecosystem?“

Shift your mindset from analysing strictly the square footage inside your front door to evaluating the square footage of the entire development. A smartly designed studio or one-bedroom apartment becomes twice as large when you factor in that your lease also unlocks access to multi-floor resident lounges, private dining rooms you can hire out for dinner parties, cinema rooms, and stunning roof terraces. Look at the whole building because you aren’t just renting a flat; you are choosing how you want to live your life.