Here are a few of the best tricks to use during your search for the perfect flatmate.

Decide what makes a flatmate perfect for you

A perfect flatmate can mean very different things to different people. For some people, the perfect flatmate is someone who stays quietly in their room.

Others want someone to go to Wetherspoons with every night, or want to find someone who is as neurotically clean as they are.

If you really want to find the perfect flatmate, know what a good one looks like to you. Knowing the type of person you’re looking for will give you a much better shot at finding the right person.

Start your search with mutual friends

Be sure to let all of your close friends know you are looking to find a flatmate. Chances are your interests and living style will line up much better with someone you are already friends with, rather than taking your chances with the basic internet flatmate query.

Don’t underestimate the power of posting a Facebook status. Those slight acquaintances we call Facebook friends can be very helpful in a flatmate search. Your university lab partner that you are still connected to might just be able to give you an introduction to the perfect flatmate.

Meet in person

There’s no better way to feel the vibe of someone than to meet them in person. Lots of people can seem amazing via email or text messages but be completely different in person.

If you already live in the flat, have them come to the flat to visit. You can also attend flatmate search meetup events to meet a lot of potential flatmates at once.

Ask a lot of questions

You never really know someone until you’ve lived together. Even if you’re moving in with a friend, make sure you ask a lot of questions. Learn as much as you can about their living habits.

While there are many questions to consider, the most important ones are those that are specifically relevant to sharing a home:

• Are they employed?
• What time do they go to bed?
• Do they like to have guests over?
• When do they tend to shower?
• What are their cleaning habits?

These are all important things to consider when living with someone else, and you can use this full list of questions to make sure you cover all ground.

Ask what a perfect flatmate looks like to them

Knowing what they would want in a perfect flatmate is also important to make sure you’ll be a good match.

If they’re hoping to find someone who wants to barbecue every night and you’re a vegetarian, that could be an early sign of a problem.

Make a lucky, right decision

Ok, this one isn’t really actionable, but sometimes you’ll just have to see how things go.

Even if you ask all the right questions, you can still get it wrong and end up living with the wrong person. Some people are great at introductions but turn out to be very different when you are actually interacting every day.

If you do end up living with someone who isn’t right, try to talk to them about the problems you have early on. The sooner you talk about the problems, the easier it is to get things resolved.

Plus, one final tip – living with flatmates will be even easier if you use acasa’s bill splitting app to track and split your shared expenses!

The post How to find the perfect flatmate appeared first on acasa Blog.

Top Websites for Finding a Flatmate

SpareRoom

SpareRoom is probably the most well-known housemate finding platform. Becoming a spare wheel for an existing houseshare might seem daunting but, with SpareRoom, you have the extra option of “buddy ups”, where you can find other people looking for accommodation.  You’ll have a greater say in building a house or flatshare from scratch with like-minded people.

SpareRoom is not only easy to use, but it has a focus on safety, regularly vetting property listings. It also encourages people to rent out rooms to increase the availability of affordable rental accommodation. Plus, it partners with Crisis to help support homelessness and has a competition for someone to win a month’s rent per month – so, if you’re feeling lucky, you might want to give it a try.

ideal flatmate

ideal flatmate’s focus is helping you find flatmates that have a strong chance of becoming your friends. It serves more as a social network for flat-hunters rather than just a flatmate hunting tool. You start by taking a survey about your living habits to help quickly connect you with the right new flatmate.

From there, you can easily message other flat seekers from their profiles to ask them questions to see if you’d get on well together. You can then create a group and browse for your perfect home. You’re also able to list an empty room in your flat for flat hunters to discover.

Badi

Originally launched in Spain back in 2015, Badi offers a free app that uses AI to help you to find your next house or flatmate. You share some information about your age, gender, personality and other details, such as whether you’re a student or in full-time work.

Then, the algorithm filters through and matches you to housemates, rather than simply a property, as is normally the case. Once you’ve found a place and flatmates you like, you can pay your deposit securely through the app to reserve it.

Coliving.com 

Coliving.com leans on the “co-living” concept which puts the emphasis on finding a like-minded community of people to live with. An international platform, Coliving.com can help you find this type of accommodation all over the world. It’s a great way to meet new people, especially if you’ve relocated.

You’ll of course get your own space – sometimes with your own ensuite and private kitchen – but with larger shared spaces where everyone can come together to socialise. It’s all-inclusive too – plus, you can rent on an individual basis, rather than committing to a joint contract with people you don’t know.

Once you’ve found a room that looks good to you, you share some basic information, then reserve it. The Coliving team will then check your profile to make sure that it matches the community you’ve applied to join.

Cohabitas

There are some slightly more niche sites out there too – such as Cohabitas. Renting and house sharing can make financial and social sense at any age, and plenty of people may have a their own home with a spare room that they’d like to rent out. Cohabitas helps match over-40s with compatible potential housemates.

It’s free to register your details and have people contact you – but, to have full freedom to find the right home, you may need to upgrade to the Premium version of the service. This will allow you to contact anyone on the platform, rather than simply those that have already upgraded.

What’s next?

Once you’ve found the right property – and perfect housemate – for you, there are other ways to make sure that you make a success of living in your househare. You can look into how to set up some simple house rules, where you can save some money, and find out how to to split your bills in the best way so it’s fair for everyone. You could even get a free app like acasa to help you manage those bills or get some of the key services that you’ll need in your new home set up for everyone’s benefit.

The post 5 top websites for finding the perfect houseshare appeared first on acasa Blog.

But over a decade later, is it still the best option for keeping utility costs low and minimising the hassle of living with other people, some of whom you may not know that well (or like that much!)?

acasa is taking things a step further in making bill-splitting fairer, more modern and simpler for every kind of sharer there is. Here’s how our app-based solution measures up against Glide!

Bills package

Glide pioneered the concept of a bills package. acasa are running with this idea in a simple, app-based form, collating all your utility bills, broadband and TV licence into a single app. With acasa, you can even add track and split other household costs such as groceries, cleaning products and nights out!

Direct billing

Just like Glide, acasa uses direct billing so that everyone is accountable for their own bills. This means that, as opposed to a situation where one person has responsibility for a bill—or even all of them—no one is left bearing the burden of somebody else’s late payment.

Smartphone

Nowadays, you can pretty much run your life from your pocket with the help of your smartphone. There’s no reason your utility bills should be an exception to this. Whereas Glide relies on a larger online system, acasa puts your household costs at your fingertips with a clever, easy-to-use app as well as a state of the art website.

Energy efficiency

Environmental concerns are becoming integral to the way we run our homes as we all become more conscious of our carbon footprint. acasa wants to make reducing the impact your energy usage is having on the world as simple as possible by pairing you with eco-friendly suppliers at affordable rates.

Social Responsibility

The team at acasa are focused not only on making sure the little things work for you in your home, but also on helping the world live better together.

Fees

One of the biggest complaints you’ll find online about Glide is how much higher monthly payments can work out after their administration fees are added on.

Use acasa

acasa is a bill sharing app designed for anyone sharing a house, from students to young professionals to couples. With acasa, you can avoid unnecessary conflict around splitting utility bills with our direct billing and balance tracking systems. Get a free quote for your property and enjoy a more stress-free approach to managing your shared house.

Get a free quote

The post acasa vs Glide: A bill-splitting app comparison appeared first on acasa Blog.

This is particularly true when your friends and family might be living at opposite ends of the country—or even the world! It can be hard to put everyone’s heads together and sort out the nitty gritty of your big get-together, such as making sure there’s something on the itinerary to suit everyone’s tastes and you’re all paying your fair share towards the trip.

Apps have become the ideal solution to this conundrum. Technology already provides simple and effective solutions to so many things in our daily lives, whether that’s paying utility bills using acasa or setting up a task list at work. Its efficiencies translate understandably well when you’re planning a holiday, which can sometimes feel like a full time job!

The perfect app for organising your event or trip doesn’t have to be a travel app, and they’re sometimes not worth the investment if you’re not a regular jet-setter. Many apps used for everyday purposes can be used just as effectively to plan group events, trips and travel.

For itineraries

Itineraries are the fun stuff: the memories you’re going to make, the places you’re going to see. However, they can be a hassle to put together. This is particularly true if you’re travelling in a group of three or more, in which case you’re responsible for managing everyone’s individual interests and making sure everyone can afford what’s planned.

Travefy

This app is ideal for creating the perfect travel itinerary, more so for flight and hotel information than sightseeing. Travefy helps you create a single, easily shareable itinerary that includes hotel reviews and contact information which will keep everyone up to speed with getting to and from your holiday! There’s even a chat feature to discuss preferred options with an optional poll to help you come to a fair consensus. The only downside is the fee that’s charged for settling eventual expenses via credit card.

Google Trips

For straightforward, low-key travel planning apps targeted at everyday users, Google Trips is one of the easiest and most collaborative to use. Google’s free offering was launched in 2016 to help ordinary travellers easily save and share their travel information with a closed group. It won’t be as streamlined as a paid option like Travefy, so those who travel regularly may want to up their budget, but it works well for a one-off group trip.

Prava

Also launched in 2016, Prava is another free option to plan a group trip, and includes a fresh community feature. Users can develop their itinerary as well as save travel memories in the form of blogs and photos while they’re away. And after they’ve returned back home, they have the option of publishing their itinerary as a trip experience on the Prava community to serve as inspiration for others.

For expenses

Now, for the argument-causer—everyone paying their fair share. No matter who you’re travelling with, there’s always one person in the group who keeps forgetting to pay up, saddelling the trip organiser with a £200-or-so sized hole in their pocket that never seems to get filled.

Sharing expenses runs throughout every stage of planning a group event or trip, from organising the itinerary, booking the flights and hotels, tickets to attractions and group meals out. Travelling with friends, family or colleagues has enough potential for people to butt heads without factoring in expenses, so to keep the peace, it’s best to use an app to track everything.

Some of the apps we’ve already mentioned have fees attached to paying the final bill, which really isn’t necessary. You may not even have to download a new app at all if you’re already using a bill splitting app to manage other areas of your life.

acasa

Acasa is a bill splitting app designed to manage household expenses, but translates nicely to your travels. If you use acasa for your home, you know the benefits already, including more reliable, trustworthy and cheaper utilities and hassle-free expenses sharing.

This can come in handy on your trip, as it saves you from having to divvy up the bill at the table, keeping the waiter stood there with the card machine. Just pay up and everyone can transfer money easily over the app. It’s completely transparent as well, so everyone can see who’s being stingy and there’s little room for excuses.

Use acasa

acasa is designed for anyone sharing a house, from students to young professionals to couples. With acasa, you can avoid unnecessary conflict around splitting utility bills with our direct billing and balance tracking systems.

Get a free quote for your property and enjoy a more stress-free approach to managing your shared house.

Get a free quote

The post What apps do people use to plan group events, trips or travel? appeared first on acasa Blog.

Years ago it was pretty uncommon for people to live together before marriage, but it’s fairly commonplace for couples to become roommates (and vice versa) long before they walk down the aisle. This is particularly true for those living in expensive areas, such as London, who find that moving in brings down individual living costs and helps them build a future together.

Working out the specifics of how much each person will be contributing early is crucial to making your arrangement work without causing unnecessary arguments.

How much to contribute to your boyfriend or girlfriend’s utility costs depends greatly on your joint lifestyle, your respective incomes and the needs of your relationship. Luckily, there are a few different options for splitting household costs for unmarried couples.

Equal share

One of the most customary ways of divvying up the utility bills is to split the cost directly down the middle. Although not necessarily the fairest way of dividing up each person’s contributions if you don’t earn the same amount, going 50/50 on expenses is by far the simplest method, requiring little-to-no mathematical skill or adjustment as your respective incomes vary over time. Within the ‘equal share’ arrangement, there are a few different approaches you can take.

Joint bank account

It’s fairly commonplace for couples to set up a joint bank account when they move in together designed to pay for utilities, repairs and perhaps even rent. What happens in this case is that every month you each move money from your individual bank accounts over to your joint account. The account, however, will have to be in one person’s name.

No one can tell you whether your relationship is ready for you to have a joint bank account—that’s your call. Generally, when you move in with somebody, you’re in it for the long haul. Depending on whether you’ve moved in to bring your individual expenses down or you consider it a step towards long-term, lifelong commitment for the two of you, opening a joint account might be the right decision.

Accounts in one person’s name

If you’re moving into your partner’s home—as opposed to the pair of you getting a new place of your own—they will already have utility bills in their name. In this case, you might choose to simply pay half the bill into your boyfriend or girlfriend’s account every time it’s due to alleviate the burden and ensure they’re not out of pocket.

The downside of this arrangement is that if the person who isn’t the named account holder is forgetful or doesn’t always pay on time, this can cause significant tensions in your relationship. With one paying the cost of the their partner’s lack of organisation, expect the atmosphere to get a little frosty.

Bill splitting apps

With the rise of app technology, apps have come to be used for everything from finding a date to planning a holiday. Now, you can even divide up household costs fairly and equally from your smartphone.

Bill splitting apps like acasa allow you both to pay in your fair share for every bill without one person having a greater share of the responsibility and offer more transparency than some of the other options.

They’re a great way of keeping the peace, especially for couples in the early stages of living together or who have made the move to keep costs to a minimum.

Dividing per bill

Some couples prefer for each person to be responsible for their own set of expenses. This is less about splitting costs equally and more about lessening the administrative burden, so to speak, on one partner being the named account holder for every bill you pay. For example, one partner might take charge of the rent while the other handles all utility bills.

In deciding to spring for this option, it’s important that you understand there will likely be an imbalance in the amount each person is paying towards your shared property. If money isn’t your main concern and your motivations instead are linked to managing stress, this could be a great choice for you. However, be wary of arguments this could cause later down the line.

Proportional to income

It’s sometimes the case in relationships that one person will be a significantly higher earner than their partner. Although you share your life, this can cause discrepancies in lifestyle, sometimes requiring the higher earner to make concessions on some luxuries they may want to avoid burdening the other partner or the higher earner subsidising their other half on meals and holidays.

This clearly becomes far more prominent after you move in. Some would argue that the fairest way is to pay a percentage relative to income, meaning that one person may pay 70% of the bill while the other shoulders 30%, for example.

Again, this needs to be managed properly to avoid turning ugly, and stands to be adjusted as your respective incomes change over time. Joint banking, nominating each person for the bill and bill splitting apps are all options here, although the latter offers the easiest calculation, transparency and adaptability over time.

Use acasa

acasa is designed for anyone sharing a house, from students to young professionals to couples. With acasa, you can avoid unnecessary conflict around splitting utility bills with our direct billing and balance tracking systems.

Get a free quote for your property and enjoy a more stress-free approach to managing your shared house.

Get a free quote

The post How much should I contribute to my boyfriend/girlfriend’s utility costs? appeared first on acasa Blog.

If can also check out our resources on finding a room in London by following this link.

—

How to find a new housemate in Australia.

More and more people in Australia are opting to live in share houses due to housing and rental unaffordability, low rental vacancy rates, the soaring cost of living and as an avenue to save for a home of their own.

Australia’s largest share accommodation site flatmates.com.au, reports a record number of Aussies seeking rooms in shared accommodation.

Early in 2016 flatmates.com.au CEO, Thomas Clement reported a 60 per cent increase in site traffic compared to 2015, which equated to a 54 per cent increase in users.

When living in shared accommodation it’s so important to be able to find a new housemate quickly when someone decides to move on from your shared living arrangement, ideally in time to cover the shared cost of your next rent and utility payments.

Here’s some advice about the best ways to go about finding a good housemate that will fit seamlessly into your share house.

Where to look:

Friends and family- The best place to start out is by talking to the people you already know and trust and seeing if they can recommend or know of anyone looking for a room to rent in your area.

Get social- Share your room for rent with your social network on Facebook and Twitter. Try creating a Facebook event including photos, the cost of rent and other details of the home, and asking your friends to invite others who may be interested.

Online classifieds- If you have no luck with family members and your social peeps, try using online classifieds and matching systems. There are a number of great free portals where you can post housemate wanted ads, such as flatmates.com.au, flatmatefinders.com.au and au.easyroommate.com.

Local universities- If your home is close to a university or college you could also try posting on that particular institution’s student Facebook page or check their website for a student accommodation listing service.

Remember to always be honest about your house, fellow housemates and the type of housemate you’re looking for in the advertisement. If you can’t stand cigarette smoke, cats and loud parties, save yourself the time and the headache of dealing with it later and say so from the get go.

Key questions to ask:

Once you have a short list of candidates, the next thing you’ll need to do is set up inspections of the home and interview your prospective roomies.

What do they do for a living? What hours do they work? From these questions you’ll be able to suss out how a person will fit into you and your housemates’ day-to-day schedules, this is especially important if you’re sharing a bathroom. You’ll also get an idea of their income, whether they’ll be able to make rent each month and whether or not the rent will be a stretch or well within their means.

How long do they plan on staying? Are they willing to co-sign the lease? These questions will help you to make sure the candidate is committed to staying for the duration of the lease. It’s also a good sign if they’re willing to co-sign the lease to protect you and the other housemates from a sudden exit.

Do they have any pets or plan on getting a pet? For many landlords having pets in their property is a non-negotiable. If you’re in this situation, it’s very important to make sure your potential housemate is aware of the no pets policy. Also some other people may simply prefer not to live with pets in their home due to allergies, cleanliness or noise.

Will they be having overnight guests? This can be a slightly awkward one to talk about with someone you’ve just met, but it’s a very important to establish a policy on sleepovers from the outset. You need to find out if someone plans on having their partner stay over more than 5 nights a week or if they’re single and intend on bringing different people back to stay frequently, which can be a safety concern.

What do they like to do to have fun/ relax/ socialise? This is a delicate way to check whether your prospective housemate will be throwing wild parties, and whether smoking, drinking or drugs are a part of their life. It’s also a good way to see if they’ll fit into the culture of your share house and if they have any things in common with yourself and other roommates, like cooking, TV shows, musical instruments, sports and hobbies.

Do they have references? Checking in with your candidate’s references will be one of the best things you can do to protect yourself from a housemate from hell. Ask them for references from past living arrangements and give them a call asking for honest feedback about the candidate. If a potential housemate has no references that’s a big red flag.

Always pay your due diligence before settling on a new housemate, as at the end of the day you will literally have to live with your decision every day. We hope our tips put you on the right path to finding the ideal housemate for your shared living arrangement.

Author bio:

Larissa Gardner is a blogger, social media strategist and marketing coordinator at arguably Australia’s best looking real estate website Homely.com.au. With over 340K listings and 500K local reviews and insights, Homely is a faster and easier way to search for property to buy and rent in Australia.

This article was originally published on the Homely Advisor Blog. Read the original article here.

The post How to find a new housemate in Australia appeared first on acasa Blog.

In this post, we want to showcase exactly how things played out as we continuously split the bills throughout the week. One important concept to note is that at acasa, we promote the concept of paying it forward. By giving a little, you end up getting a little This is defined as:

• If you paid for the last thing and are in ‘the Red’, it’s your turn to “pay it forward” and pay for the next thing for your home e.g. toilet paper
• If you bought the milk last time and are in ‘the Green’, one of the people you live with should pay for the next thing

Paying it forward is similar to buying rounds so friends groups are usually well versed in this mentality. acasa allows you to apply this thinking to larger more complicated spending situations. On our team we found that it felt like an honour, and quite a relief, to pay it forward and try to get yourself far into the green. Once in credit, you could relax in the joy of having it feel like others are just buying things for you for the next few items and meals on the trip! Obviously in reality, you ponied up big early on – but it feels good to sit pretty in that green.

Morocco proved the ideal testing ground for us to use the pay it forward mentality in action as we split all the bills.

Here is how it played out:

It was happy beginnings as everyone started out ‘all squared.’ This meant that everyone was on a balance of zero as we had not split any costs yet.

One of our developers, Ollie, with his trademark organisation, planned to take out Moroccan Dirham ahead of time and this meant he was paying for pretty much everything until we found a cash machine. As a result, he shot into the green in the first hours of the trip as he purchased the Monday lunch & suncream.

Finding a cash machine proved to be a challenge. In our small surfing village there simply weren’t any. We had to negotiate a 15 minute taxi ride to a neighboring beach town in order to take out Moroccan Dirham.

Morocco is primarily a cash based society and very few establishments (that we found) accepted payments by card. We were shocked by this with our London ‘contactless payments’ mentality. The second time we visited this ATM after taking out 1000 Dirham (£74), the ATM reported it was out of cash.

Suncream was needed…

Wanting an afternoon snack, we splurged £2.75 on a watermelon and dates. When trying to evenly split the bills, remember that even the small shared expenses can add up…

Katya was then able to even out her debt by footing the dinner bill for the whole squad. (£58.18) Here you can see how she moves out of debt into the green while the rest of us owe more.

If you haven’t tried it, Moroccan food is pretty delicious!

When Edward spent £595.01 for our accommodation and airport van, he requested that that everyone immediately reimburse him as this was a large cost.

You can see that even though Edward paid £595.01 he only became £499.13 in credit as this payment was evening out his debt.

The image on the left is the view from our office/home for the week. We were staying in a co-working and co-living space called SunDesk. #homesweethome

Everyone quickly paid Edward back for that large cost.

Once a cost is paid back, that expense is marked as blue on the cost details page. Here you can see that everyone had paid Edward back.

An extra night in Marrakesh:

6 of us decided to spend an extra night in Marrakech before heading back to London. We split into pairs to share rooms at a Riad in the center of Marrakech for a mere £18 each.

I shared a room with Katya. Since we were the only ones on this cost, we only split the cost two ways by only selecting our two names.

£18 goes a long way in Morocco. The photos above are from our hotel’s beautiful pool and roof terrace.

Finally, we celebrated our final shared meal with a bit of luxury. We dined at the famous Dar Zellij restaurant in Marrakech. They served us the most delicious lamb, beef and veggie tagines that any of us had ever tried.

At the end of the trip, it was clear who still needed to settle their debts and pay others back. Only slightly sun-burned, we all returned to London energised. As a company we had truly shared costs while living together. We had to learn how to split the bills not only with the people we were living with, but the people we work with as well.

Learning how to split the bills can be an extremely stressful experience in a multitude of settings particularly in the place you live. acasa was able to help us manage our finances when we lived together and we hope that is can do the same for shared households around the world.

Want to try acasa or yourself? Download here: http://spli.tt/morocco

The post The good, the bad and the ‘cash machine is out of money.’ appeared first on acasa Blog.

Would you consider your flatmates friends?

Do you know your neighbours?

For most of us living in the world’s most crowded and expensive cities like London, New York, Paris, or San Francisco we would answer no to many, if not all of these questions. We are frequently switching homes, neighbourhoods, cities and sometimes even countries forcing us to find new people to live with. We’re frequently moving between flats and houses and rarely feel a deep connection to our community, neighbourhood or home.

As a 32 year old barely-hanging-on-to-my-millennial-title-by-the-skin-of-my-teeth I know this all too well. I worked in 6 companies before starting my own, I’ve lived in multiple cities around the world including Washington, D.C., Tel Aviv, Berlin and now London. In total, I’ve shared 17 different homes — 9 since I moved to the UK in March 2010. I’ve lived with people up, down and across the spectrums of age, race, nationality, gender, and sexual preference. I currently live with 5 other housemates (including my fiancée roommate). While I’ve run into plenty of problems, I’ve also had tremendous amounts of fun. More importantly, I discovered that it takes a special combination of people to make you feel happy, cozy and comfortable in your living situation.

My crib — part of a council estate close to Brick Lane in East London. Sardine-like would be an understatement.

In all of these living situations, I’ve learned that it’s people are what make a house feel like home. People make a hostel feel like a secret paradise or a nomadic garden community feel like an urban oasis. However, even knowing this, many of us still find ourselves in living situations with that don’t feel quite right with people that piss us off or vice versa.

What the heck is co-living and why is everyone talking about it?

Co-living has emerged in the past few years as a trend that fits our new expectations of a home and and is a model that has been rapidly increasing in popularity.

Co-living is “a modern, urban lifestyle that values openness, sharing and collaboration” as defined by http://www.coliving.org.

The concept rides on the coat-tails of other popular changes in workplace expectations including the open floor plan office, co-working spaces and the rise of digital nomads. WeWork, the shared-office-space startup valued at $16B, is one of the first to take on this new community based way of living. They did this through launching WeLive, flexible apartments in Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago. WeLive is described as a “new way of living built upon community, flexibility, and a fundamental belief that we are only as good at the people we surround ourselves with.” WeLive’s distinguishing factor is that it focuses on cultivating friendships inside the apartment buildings we share through community driven common spaces.

Co-living has emerged as a solution to the ‘people problem.’ Property with shared amenities, smaller than usual private or shared living quarters, a buzzy vibe, modern design and decor dubbed “co-living” spaces are popping up around some of our greatest cities. They are attempting to replace the now outdated dream of the suburban home as something to aspire toward. Co-living instead draws young professional renters in to what some describe as an extended stay at a University dormitory, this time built for people out of school and in the workforce.

Laundry room at WeLive in New York Source

For our parents generations, success came as a degree, buying a car, getting a mortgage, a straight-forward heterosexual marriage in your twenties. It was an era of a one-size-fits-all housing model that supported a one-size-fits-all vision of “a good life”. Now that vision of what makes a good life, is not only unachievable, with the housing market failure and often escalating student or personal debt, it no longer seems desirable. We now crave flexibility. We’re more social. We measure our wealth in relationships and experiences. We would rather travel by Uber than buy our own car. We frequently switch careers and can learn new skills through webinars and Youtube channels. We stay in stranger’s homes over hotels when traveling and work can be and is done from anywhere with a wifi connection.

Common bonds around flexibility before predictability and access before ownership has become what draw us back toward each other and our living environment. Co-living serves as the adaptation of these values into a housing model.

So is co-living actually “new” or does it go way back?

It goes way back. Like, way way back. In many ways this movement can be seen as humans moving back to our more tribal roots of pre-industrialisation. Historically, tribes and communities were essential to basic survival as tribes moved across the land looking for the best access to food. Those that built shelter along the way but moved on were called nomadic tribes. Those that ended up sticking around built communities, some of which became thriving civilisations.

Now, 200+ centuries later we are still searching for the best places to live and the people and communities to share them with. While co-living might not seem like such a novel concept as people have always lived together, what sparked this sudden euphoria and zeitgeist around its’ concept?

Technology and the housing crisis

Growing up with computers sparked a drastic change in the way we live our lives. The world wide web and the affordability of mobile web connected devices (aka smartphones) introduced to us in our teenage years or earlier, set our generation up to take advantage of the web’s infinite flexibility, global communication reach and limitless information. We don’t settle for a career and life path etched in stone before we were born. We are, at times, arrogant as we’ve been told we can be whatever we want to be when we grow up. Naturally we want to try everything until we find what we love. If we can’t find it, we build it ourselves. We’re constantly on the look out for the next “it”.

Frequently seen social habit, group of friends all on their cell-phones. Source

While all of this has been happening, housing prices are rising at astronomical rates and more people are choosing to move to cities than ever before. This has led to a huge increase in the rental market. The most recent English Housing Survey shows, millennials between the ages of 25–34 are more likely to be renting in the private sector than to be buying with a mortgage. What’s more interesting is that over the last 10 years the number of those aged 25–34 living in privately rented households has nearly doubled to from 24% to 46%. The private rental sector is growing in the UK like never before. Housing can’t be built fast enough.

People are stuffing themselves into any property they can find but are becoming increasingly picky in other aspects of our lives. New technology has definitely pushed us to become more impatient and expect things ‘on-demand’. With the emerging swarm of connected devices and the Internet of Things, we as a generation are coming to expect better ways of living. Real estate as it’s currently set up, simply can’t support.

Co-living and technology are a part of the solution

Co-living emerged as a solution to bridge the years of being a student to starting a family. While we are increasingly spending our lives moving around, chatting to people, partners, love interests, coworkers, families — moving from place to place — building business after business — we’re keeping one thing constant. Our interaction with people. It’s this interaction with people that seems to be the addiction and common thread that pulls our otherwise ’scattered’ lives together. It’s these bonds that I believe, are creating this age old propensity to be a part of a group — to be a part of a tribe.

We are seeing more and more co-living spaces popping up everyday as a number of up and coming entrepreneurs and businesses have realised that there is an unmet market need. They’ve gone out and actually rebuilt buildings and formed communities in and around them to usher in a modern, somewhat glitzy take on co-living. Reza Merchant and James Scott at The Collective in London, Adam Neumann at WeLive and Brad Hargreaves at Common both in New York City, and Bruno Haid at ROAM in Indonesia amongst many others are hard at work building these communities. This generation that these entrepreneurs emerged from and are now serving, is growing up and their housing needs have completely evolved.

My parents on a visit to London checking out the luxuries of my fiancée and my room — landlord converted the living room to a bedroom which we call home. Six of us are living in the 3-bedroom converted to 4-bedroom apartment.

People living together, sharing resources, using a smaller footprint when it comes to property is great for so many reasons. Whether you live in one of these new fangled developments, or are sharing a council estate HMO with your fiancee and 4 other housemates (ahem — me!), you’re living with a lighter footprint on the planet. You collectively use less energy than you would consumer if you were on your own. You can do group shops and buy your food in bulk. The limited housing stock that exists in your city can house more people if you are happy to live in a smaller space. You get greater access to nicer property than you could otherwise afford when you are sharing. Most importantly, it brings people back to that primitive sensation of human connection, of community and being part of something bigger than themselves – part of a tribe.

Written by Nick Katz.

Check back for more writing on co-living and the future of living / property and follow acasa on Twitter / Medium.

The post The Evolution of Co-living appeared first on acasa Blog.

Living with coworkers can help financially, when you consider the reduced cost of rent, utilities and other living expenses. It also makes sense when you think about similar schedules, and the fact that you can carpool or travel together to work and meetings. However, the decision to live with a coworker isn’t always easy – working and living with someone can raise a whole host of potential issues. Below, we’ve put together a list of 4 tips to make it work:

1. Be honest
When living with a coworker, the most important thing is to remain honest and transparent. It’s much better to deal with issues head-on, rather than to let them chafe until one of you blows up, which can create tension at work and home. So, if your roommate never puts his dishes in the dishwasher or always fails to refill the toilet paper, speak up as soon as you can. Be nice about it, but be firm. If you keep your tone light and conversational, your requests should be well-received.

2. Be respectful of privacy and space
Whether it’s alone time to decompress or social time with a separate group of friends, everyone needs their space. Even if you have some of the same friends as your roommate, it’s okay – and even normal – to have separate friends as well. Don’t feel offended if your roommate goes out without you one night, and don’t worry about offending her if you do the same. Respect for one another as individuals improves your chances of having a healthy, happy living situation.

3. Communicate your expectations
Whether you know your coworker well or not at all before you decide to move in together, it’s important to clearly communicate each of your expectations for your living arrangements. From bill payment to chore lists to expectations for parties and overnight guests, lay it all out on the table – before you move in together. That way, both parties are on the same page and there won’t be any surprises or inadvertent offenses down the road.

4. Leave work at work
It’s natural to want to talk (or occasionally vent) about work when the day is done. But if that’s all you and your roommate discuss, it can quickly become overwhelming. Feel free to discuss your workday for a few minutes at dinner or before you part ways for the night, but don’t let it become your only topic of discussion. And make sure to avoid gossiping about coworkers or sharing sensitive project information.
The most important factor to a successful coworker-roommate relationship? A coworker you like and get along with. Choose someone who you enjoy working with, and who has values that align with yours. Remember that relationships of every kind take work, so be prepared to work to get along.
Have you ever lived with a coworker? What was your experience?
Tweet us @SplittableUK and let us know!

All images from Fast Company

[banner id=”1375″]

The post How to Live With a Coworker appeared first on acasa Blog.