What is a flatshare?

A house or flat share is the general term used to describe most shared accommodation and properties with rooms to rent.   Flat shares and House shares have become much more common practice in the larger cities of the UK such as London, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool, where the cost to buy or rent a property and associated costs such as council taxes and utility bills are very high.

Someone who is living in a house or flat share is commonly referred to as a housemate, flatmate, or sometimes roommate.  Rarely, a room will be offered as a room share which means that you will be sharing the room with another person, so it is best to check when being offered a room share. 

In a house or flat share you will rent a room from the landlord but share communal areas such as the kitchen and lounge with other people that live with you in the house. 

Other types of shared accommodation and variations on the flatshare / house share are :

Monday to friday share

If a person’s commute to work is either very long, or very expensive (or both) then they may choose to rent a room in a flat share or house share in order to save time and or money.

Student shared house

These are houses which as the name suggests are for students only.  They are normally large houses rather than flats and are typically very close to major university campuses.

A family home

Growing in popularity, people are opening up their homes to lodgers to live with them and their families.  This has been encouraged by the changes in the global economic climate and the introduction of the Rent a Room Scheme.

An example could be a family whose eldest son or daughter has flown the nest, may choose to rent out the room which they lived in to generate some extra income.

The following statistics* list the top 10 cities in the UK for both landlords (rooms offered) and tenants (looking for rooms)

Rooms offered

1. London
2. Manchester
3. Bristol
4. Birmingham
5. Leeds
6. Edinburgh
7. Glasgow
8. Nottingham
9. Liverpool
10. Cardiff

People looking for rooms

1. London
2. Manchester
3. Bristol
4. Birmingham
5. Glasgow
6. Brighton
7. Leeds
8. Edinburgh
9. Liverpool
10. Cardiff

*Statistics are based upon figures generated by RoomBuddies.com in June 2009