How far out of town do you want to be ? I am guessing that you want to be within a mile or two of the centre.
When I was first in Cardiff, I was advised that north of the river is better, but that is quite a generalisation. There are good and bad areas in any direction out of Cardiff.
Roath and Cathays have a lot of students, and are quite reasonable areas. You know whether you want to live in a student area ...
Canton is probably reasonably priced and ok, but beware football traffic in the Canton and Leckwith areas (Canton is probably better than Leckwith & Grangetown). Next to Canton is Pontcanna, which is generally much more expensive, but a nice place to live. Further out are Ely and Fairwater, which have a higher proportion of council housing – interpret that as you like, but house prices are lower there. North of Pontcanna / A48 are Llandaff and Llandaff North. Llandaff North is more likely to have reasonably priced accommodation, but it is out of walking distance from the centre.
To the north of Cardiff (a couple of miles out) are Maindy, Gabalfa, Birchgrove, Heath and Whitchurch. The main hospital is in the Heath area – nice area but parking is at a premium due to the hospital. Gabalfa and Birchgrove have a mixture of housing. Whitchurch is a good area – varying from 2-bed terrace to big posh detached houses with swimming pools …
Thornhill has a lot of newer housing, and is less of a student area. Lisvane and Llanishen are nice areas, but probably expensive with it. Cyncoed has very nice areas and more modern estates, so probably quite a mixture.
I don’t know Llanedyrn, Rumney and Llanrumney areas well, but my impression is that they are a bit rougher, but there are reasonable areas.
Outside of the centre of Cardiff, Roath, Whitchurch and Canton have good day-to-day shopping areas.
Whitchurch has more of a village atmosphere, and Roath has masses of food outlets.
If I was single and looking for rented accommodation in walking distance of the centre, then I would probably look around Heath / Cathays, possibly Canton. I would avoid Grangetown, Riverside, Leckwith and also the Bay area (scenic with bars / restaurants, but not a lot else). I would also avoid Mynachdy.
This is my personal opinion and doesn’t mean that you won’t find a nice place in Grangetown or a grotty place in Cathays.
Apologies if I have bad-mouthed an area of Cardiff where any members live, but Cardiff has lots of good and bad areas right next to each other, and it is difficult to generalise about a community area.
If you have a particular street / address, PM me and I’ll say if I know anything about it.
