The Guide to Choosing Your Housemates

Even though the semester has only just started, it's important to start looking for your 2nd/3rd year housemates early on.

The student housing market is bustling and it's likely that everyone wants the best house!

So, what should you look out for when trying to find housemates?

Know What Type Of People You Want To Live With

Finding a housemate at university is almost like speed dating. In your first year you don't have long to decide and want to find the perfect match! A good strategy is asking them questions of how they envisage their living situation next year. For example, you can ask them:

• Are you thinking of living in a big house? Or just with one or two people?
• Do you want to have house parties next year?
• Are they going to be going out a lot next year?

The answers to these questions can give you a good indication about whether you're a match! This requires you to have a decent idea about your own criteria but chatting to your friends about these questions can help you develop yours!

We've seen all those movies where students living with 8+ people but you don't have to live with a large group of people!

It may sound exciting, but you might be sacrificing privacy and independence due to having so many housemates.

It's suitable to find a house that suits you and your housemates, even if it means you have to split the number of people you live with.

You should keep in mind that the majority of students love to socialise or go out, but there will be a lot of times where your degree comes first.

I'ts important that your chosen housemates feel the same way about their degree, orherwise no one will be able to study in your house.

It's also necessary to live in a house with students where your mental and physical health is well looked after. This means a getting a good sleep at night, healthy meals and exercising. Therefore, it's worth finding housemates who reflect this need in having positive health.

Start House Hunting Early

As the student housing market is so popular, it's better to be prepared and start looking as early as you can, this often means November of the year before.

This means you'll have a better chance at getting a nice student property within your budget!

It's very common for students to leave this to the last minute and these are usually the ones who end up living in a housemate nightmare!

So if you want to end up in a positive house share next year, it's best to start approaching your flatmates or friends as early as you can.

Budgeting

Choose your housemates that have a similar or the same budget as you.

You should try and stick to this budget throughout the house hunting process.

This will prevent you from struggling for money in the future if you overestimate how much you can afford

It's also worth having someone in your house that is good with monitoring bills and the financial side. This will keep everyone on top of money during your time in the house and should make rent and bill payments much more manageable

Set Some House Rules!

It's very likely that there will be some disagreements between you all throughout the year. Setting some ground rules before you move in can hopefully ease this from happening.

You will need to organise things such as paying the bills and rent management.

Things may get confusing if you don't organise this with your housemates and you need to make sure that everyone will pay.

Creating schedules for cleaning is also useful as it'll hopefully reduce the chances of housemates avoiding their cleaning duties

47% of student households include a housemate that avoids cleaning!

Creating some rules before deciding to move in together will help you all realise whether you want to live with each other.

House sharing can become a nightmare if no one gets along with eachother, so getting to know eachother beforehand and creating some rules can hopefully prevent a nightmare from occurring!

It can be a difficult process finding the right housemates, but don't forget that there are even Facebook groups out there for other students looking too, so don't feel to nervous about it.

This ultimate guide should be able to make the housemate hunting process a much smoother journey, but if you have any questions, comment below!