Top 7 Websites for Finding The Perfect Houseshare

There are some great websites that can help you find a houseshare, whether you are looking to move into a house or want to fill spare rooms in your own house. I have rounded up the top 7 websites below that are ideal for matching with suitable housemates or advertising available rooms in your own house.

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Spareroom

Spareroom is one of the oldest housesharing websites, being launched in 2004. According to their About page, they have 2 million visitors every month and offer multiple services from advertising your own room or posting a room wanted ad, plus specific houseshares like student accommodation, LGBT flatshares and a ‘buddy up’ option to find other people looking for accommodation in your area. Spareroom is free to use for tenants and landlords but does charge for Early Bird access and upgrades like Bold Ads. You can even advertise a whole property on Spareroom, making it easy for landlords to fill their properties quickly and easily. Spareroom has a team of moderators who vet all posts to ensure the listings are legal and legitimate. Their website includes helpful guides for potential tenants and landlords about tenancy agreements, home insurance and Rent a Room schemes.

Ideal Flatmate

Ideal Flatmate offers users the chance to get paired with their ideal flatmates by taking a quiz and operates similarly to a social network for househunters. Taking the survey is fun and helps to ensure your new housemates are a good fit, personality-wise to avoid potential future clashes. You can also list your own room for rent or your entire property on Ideal Flatmate to find potential tenants – according to their website, over 6000 new flatmates join the site every month. They charge either £14.99 per week or £25-50 per month to list properties on their website but offer to refund you if you are unhappy with their service.

Roomgo

Formerly known as EasyRoommate, Roomgo has been around since 1999, and claims to be the largest online flatshare community, with listings worldwide. Roomgo manually checks every ad for a room on their site to keep users safe and also allows people to make a profile to match with potential housemates or landlords. Roomgo offers a basic or premium membership, with the basic members unable to contact other basic members so to use the site effectively, you would probably need a premium membership. They do not list the price of a premium membership on their website, instead just describing it as a ‘small fee’ and at the time of writing, the price for premium Roomgo has not been shared on other websites either.

Roomies

Roomies has 4520 listings at the time of writing and enables people to list their room or property for rent and to look for their rental requiring everyone to make a profile to message others. It is free to join but does charge a fee of £3 for ID verification which is required to message other members. They also offer credit checks and background checks, which are optional but could add more security and trustworthiness to your listing. You can also make your property listing into a featured listing for a reasonable £5 for 10 days, which includes bumping your ad to the top of search results and adding a highlight. Roomies offers handy features like a free roommate agreement template that includes general terms of a room rental – it is not a legal contract but could be useful to have.

Cohabitas

Aimed at a mature rental audience, Cohabitas has room rental listings for the over-40s (or mature over-35s). They showcase rooms for rent in houses and flats, potential housemates looking for places to live, and the option for ‘buddy-ups’ allowing people to find like-minded new housemates to rent a home as a group. This is a niche housesharing website that fulfils a need as people over 40 may want a different houseshare environment than students and younger people. You can make a free listing on Cohabitas, but if you want to be featured at the top of relevant sections and be able to message all other users on the site, you will need a premium membership which starts at £12.90 per week.

Badi

Badi offers houseshares worldwide and offers an app that allows people to match with potential new housemates. The basic subscription is free but only allows you to match once. Upgrading to Badi Gold allows users to have unlimited matches, receive recommended tenants, and other perks – it’s worth mentioning that Badi Gold applies per listing, not per account, so if you have multiple properties to offer, you would need to purchase Badi Gold for all of them. Badi Gold costs €19.99 for 30 days. Potential tenants can buy a similar upgrade called Badi Fast-Track for €9.99 with the chance to extend it for a further 30 days if they haven’t found a suitable houseshare within the first 30 days. They also offer Badi Plus, which gives the option to rent a room in serviced accommodation which includes amenities like kitchen supplies, linens towels, cleaning, concierge services, and other add-ons like airport transfers if required.

Flatmates

Flatmates is fairly new to the houseshare website game, and little can be found about them online. Their modern, slick website claims to use the “latest cloud technologies” and offers the chance to list rooms available for rental or for potential tenants to list their own profile including their budget and move-in date. Listing a property seems quick and simple and their site also includes a blog with helpful information for tenants and landlords. It does not mention whether they offer free or paid access.

When looking for new tenants or a room in a houseshare, always be vigilant of scammers or fraudsters – don’t send money to or agree to rent a room to someone you have never met. Remember to consider whether the houseshare or new housemate will be a good fit to avoid any future conflicts. Make a list of new tenant must-haves (or mustn’t-haves) to compare potential housemates to, and if you are looking for a room in a houseshare, make a list of needs and preferences for your ideal home.

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