Uncategorized, 26 September

The perfect housemate – landlords’ preferences

The ingredients of a perfect housemate profile. 

A survey of over 2000 UK property owners is seeking to find out what qualities live-in landlords are looking for in their ideal roommates.

The survey shows that a quarter of landlords show a preference to sharing a house with someone working in the medical profession, which was closely followed by flatmates working in financial service, indicating that certain careers do make for a more favorable roommate profile, providing value over other prospective roommates. However, when simplifying the survey results, it shows that in general, landlords don’t put much emphasize and importance regarding the occupation their housemates have, as long as they show financial stability and are able to pay rent on time.

As for gender, the survey indicates a slight preference towards female tenants, though the most important factor is clearly being a tidy and hygienic roommate.

Property owners mainly want to share their house with roommates who are at a similar age range, which actually makes it easier to find a room the older you get, with the most sought after age group to live with is that of between 35-55 years old.

Another important point to notice is that live-in landlords sharing similar interests with their tenants tend to promote a happier living environment. Ideally, they would want to share an appreciation of food, music, fitness and other hobbies with their occupants, which in turn upgrades the relationship between the housemates in many cases to friendship, as they share more common interests and time together.

Housemates and spare rooms UK

What makes the perfect housemate

Image source: Betta Living Blog.

Professor Craig Jackson, head of Psychology at Birmingham City University, reviewed the findings of the study, noticing that the results appear to reveal a paradox – “we seem to want people who are just like us (age, habits and personality) but at the same time we also want that person to be “better” than we are.” Which is just another aspect demonstrating the important of getting to know y our roommates or housemate the best you can before renting a room or a flat together.

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