18th October 2017
Choosing housemates for a house share
How to choose your housemates
After moving into your student accommodation and meeting all of your new housemates, it can feel like no time at all before you’re organising your living arrangements for the next academic year. But who should you live with and how soon should you be looking for your student houseshare?
We’ve broken down our top tips for choosing your housemates to ensure plain sailing throughout university.
1. Friends
The more people you meet while you are at university, the more choice you will have when choosing who to live with. Whether you meet people through your halls, course, or society, there are many ways to meet a range of different people which will not only give you lots of friends to spend time with, but also more options when it comes to deciding who you should live with. For example, living with your coursemates may seem like a great idea, but when you’re spending all your time in lectures together and time at home, it can become overwhelming so branching out and living with a range of people can be a good idea.
2. Take your time
Taking the time to consider who you want to live with can be crucial in ensuring you make the right decision for the year ahead. It can be easy to continue living with your flatmates from your existing halls or people on your course, however, this may not always be the best decision. Giving it a few months to get to know potential housemates properly (and soberly!) can ensure that you are choosing to live with people who are in the same mindset as you both in terms of work ethic and social life and will make the next year of uni much less stressful.
3. Consider your priorities
Everybody has different priorities when it comes to choosing a student house. If you’re quite a tidy person, living with someone who cares less about mess may not work for you. Similarly, thinking about what you want in a student house will ensure you are making the best decision to suit you. Would you rather be right on campus or a little further out? Are you looking for a single or double bedroom? Do you need an en-suite? Thinking about what is important to you before choosing your housemates will help you to consider what you definitely want in a house and the things you may be willing to compromise on.
4. Money
Making sure that you and your potential housemates have a similar budget is essential to choosing the right people to live with. Ensuring you all have the same amount of money to work with will not only ensure that you can choose a house which fits all your needs, but also control whether you go for bills included or not. Making sure you all have a similar budget to spend on bills to save arguments about having the heating on or off and how the bills should be split at the end of each month.
5. Make the right choice for you
Ultimately, you have to make the choice that’s right for you. It’s not worth living with someone you’re not comfortable with so, if you know that you don’t want to live with someone, it’s best to break it to them sooner rather than later!
University is a great place to live with a big group of friends who you love to spend time with, so the best advice would be to make the most of it and choose your housemates wisely. These are just a few things to consider when choosing your student housemates.
Give us a call if you would like to find out more or request a viewing for one of our many student properties close to Chester Uni.
