Frequently asked questions

You must log in to use the Housing Portal.

The Housing Portal opens at 9 a.m. on March 26, 2024 for 2024-2025 applications for new students. 

Reminder: You need to have received an offer of admission to have access to the Housing Portal. You cannot apply for residence if you have not yet been admitted to the University. You don't need to have accepted your offer of admission, but you do need to have received it. 

The Housing Portal is designed to give you all the information you need to book your room or apply for residence. If you wish to do some research beforehand, you can have a look at the following resources:

• Compare residences
• Meal plans

Although it is possible to log in to the Housing Portal and apply on a phone or tablet, we recommend using a desktop or laptop for the best experience.

Some room types get booked very quickly. If you don’t see a room or room type available, reset your filters on the room selection page to make sure that you’re seeing all possible options.

If you still don’t see the room type you want, it means that you should select another room type because the one you are looking for is no longer available or is not available to your applicant type (for example, returners can only apply for 12-month buildings).

When you first get to the room selection screen, you’ll see every room type listed, to narrow down your choices, use the filters at the top of the screen:

For example, you can filter the room type to indicate that you want a 7-day meal plan, an 8-month agreement, and a maximum price of $20,000 for the year.

You can also use the compare feature to compare between two and four room options side by side.

If you see a no results message (i.e. you select “90U” as the building but there’s nothing available), use the “reset filters” button to reset all options and start again.

You have to select a minimum of three preferences to continue with the application. The maximum is seven.

Priority is given to those who want an 8- or 12-month agreement.  The housing guarantee does not apply for stays of only 4 months.

The totals listed on the room selection screen are for either 8 months or 12 months, as specified.  If you receive a 4-month offer, the total would match the 4-month period.

You can check out the meal plan website to learn more about the different options. 

The total price is for the specified number of months.

It includes Internet, utilities, and the meal plan if you selected a room type with a meal plan.

Guaranteed first-year students who apply before April 30 can expect to receive their housing offer between mid-May and mid-June.

Guaranteed first-year students who applied between May 1 and June 1 can expect to receive their housing offer between June 7 and July 14.

Should there be any availability after assigning all the students with a housing guarantee, we will issue housing offers to non-guaranteed students on a first come, first served basis. The earliest possible offer will be sent toward the end of June, and then continuously throughout the summer as vacancies occur.

For details, visit our Important residence dates and deadlines page. 

We have a limited number of rooms in each residence, and every year, interest in living in specific residences exceeds the space available. It is not possible to guarantee every student their preferred choices.

If you filled out an application and we sent you an offer that was not a high preference for you, it’s because your higher preferences were not available.

Read more about our room assignment process.

If you are a student with a guarantee in residence, the deposit must be paid at the time you apply or book your room. Note that your reservation is not finalized until your $700 deposit is received.

All other students must pay the deposit when they accept their offer. You can pay via credit card within the Housing Portal or by alternative method of payment.

Visit the Important Residence Dates and Deadlines page for deposit refund deadlines in the event of reservation cancellation. 

Visit the room assignment and shared living for information. 

If you have both been accepted and are ready to apply for housing, we recommend that you go through the process at the same time on separate computers.

Once you are on the room selection page:

At the roommate question, specify the name of your roommate.

Select “submit application/roommate” priority. This means that our assignment team will prioritize putting you together as roommates over your room preferences. This could mean getting put in a room type that is lower in your preferences.

NOTE: Even if you both prioritize being roommates or if you aren’t applying at the same time (one of you has a later acceptance than the other), you may not be paired together if we don’t have fully vacant rooms, etc. We do not guarantee that roommates can be paired.

More details on roommate request and roommate matching. 

We send out several rounds of emails letting you know who your roommates are (if applicable) in July and August.  Names and email addresses are communicated unless a student has not agreed to the sharing of the information when they applied.

Check the Important Residence Dates and Deadlines for the latest information.

After withdrawing your application or cancelling your offer, you need to submit your deposit refund request by going to Applications in uoZone and selecting Refund Request. The refund is not automatic; you need to request it.

See procedure to cancel your housing application. Once you have cancelled your acceptance or withdrawn from the University of Ottawa, you will also need to go in the Housing Portal and cancel or withdraw your residence application or offer. 

If any money is owed to you, you need to request the refund in uoZone, otherwise, the credit will remain in your student account.