Hi gse I generally prefer a minimum of 6 months personally otherwise it becomes to much of a pain finding tenants again.
It sort of sounds by your last comment that you are looking for share accommodation. Try web sites like gumtree and other share accommodation sites to find a place to live - there always seems to be plenty of people looking people to move in with them there. You could also try local papers but my experience in the past is they can be a bit of a dead loss to find someone decent (but that is only my experience to date).
I deal primarily with share accommodation so as Kincilla identified expect to pay more but for that you get a fully furnished house with all the basics included including utilities up to certain limits.
What people are willing to accept is very dependent on their individual circumstances. For example I generally find it harder to get someone in my situation later in the year so I am willing to sign someone up for a couple of months if it gets me over Christmas, after which it is significantly easier to get someone to fill the vacancy.
