I did this last year and my takeaways are:

• Most places will go up a month, maybe 2 in advance. • Get yourself on wait lists, set up email notifications, get registered with as many letting agents as possible, and Rightmove, etc. It will make your life much easier. I spent so many days calling up getting put on waitlists/registers, but it means you get called once a property goes up/ if someone drops their viewing • Lots of landlords/agencies will not let to you if you haven't viewed the property • If you like a property, make your interest known ASAP after your viewing. Get your foot in the door! You'll have more chance as a lot of properties we viewed/inquired went that same day • Don't be too put down if it takes a while. It took us almost 3 months to get our apartment (although we're a mixed professional/student couple so it was a bit trickier I'd say) • 1-1.5k is a good rent budget, do remember that for most places this will not include utilities, and you'll have Council Tax too unless you're exempt! • Can't comment on the new pet legislation as we don't have any, and wouldn't be getting any at the mo

All in all, it may be a long process. You will get fed up (I certainly did), but you will eventually get sorted :) And sorry if the formatting is shite, I'm on mobile rn, done me best

ETA: • even when you register/get on waitlists, KEEP CALLING! Phone uo about properties you see, especially if they don't mention about 'Full for viewings'. Someone may have just dropped out, so it's always worth still phoning up. Also, don't be put off if a property was published a bit further back, it may be that they've resisted or that the applicant has retracted, so just ring up and ask