Guide to the AF Bostader Housing Lottery

The most recent source I found prior to writing this is by Lund Insider (2015), so I've decided to write my own update (and put the process in hopefully less confusing terms haha)

What is the AF Bostader lottery? 

When applying for accommodation through AF Bostader I was really confused as to what the "lottery" actually referred to. Basically, the lottery is the name assigned to the housing applicant's random allocated 'queue' time: translating more simply into your assigned housing 'priority'. 

Still confused? (Same.) 

Let's go through the steps on how to actually get to the lottery before I elaborate:

Pre-lottery process:

Register: there are two prerequisites for students wishing to enter the lottery. As an exchange student, you're eligible for Novisch status (meaning that you're granted an immediate priority as a new student). You should have your acceptance letter handy to prove that you've been enrolled into at least 15 credits at Lund. 

You also need to be a member of Studentlund. I got sent an email on 10 December 2018, the day before registrations (between 11 - 12 December 2018) to participate in the AFB lottery opened, looking like the image below. To join Studentlund is super easy: literally copy/paste a link into your browser to confirm your identity, then pay and you're in!

Cool. So we've registered now - onto the opening of the lottery!

The Novisch lottery for Spring 2019 opened on 13 December 2018. Usually the lottery opens around 10 - 14 December for the Spring semester. 

In this tab: 

 Under:

You'll see a "queue time" with "lottery underway". 

I checked at 00:00 (Lund time) refreshing "Your Page" to receive my queue time... over a period of 7 hours obsessively checking to see whether it had been allocated. (This was a MASSIVE waste of time tbh). 

Then this happened: 

Once you get your queue time you can start selecting your preferences for accommodation. The important thing to remember (so you don't waste 7 hours like I did...) is that your queue time or your level of "priority" for housing being low or high is randomly allocated through the "lottery". And that's all the lottery means - just randomly distributing who has a higher chance of getting accommodation. 

NOTE: Your queue time is NOT affected by the time you register for accommodation. It is not allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis unlike LU Accommodation so it doesn't matter when you register or when you actually apply, so long as you do it before 23:59 on the first day of applications.

Because this process is all left to chance, you don't have to sit there madly refreshing the page. Just check periodically throughout the day to see whether or not your queue time has been updated, then start placing housing preferences.

NOTE: Don't panic if your position in the queue changes throughout the day - this occurs because someone with a higher priority for housing has chosen the same housing as you. 

My bookings looked like this on the first day, despite being the first person to select my preferences (haha I'm really enforcing the don't waste your time just madly refreshing thing here...) 

I was lucky enough to be offered a room in Sparta after the first day. However, some of my friends who weren't offered accommodation in the first round just waited until the lottery 24-hr time period refreshed to re-book their accommodation choices. 

And that's all for now - if there are updates I'll edit or write a follow-up post accordingly. 

Good luck!