Renters are having to secure rooms months in advance, with as few as 11% of live listings being available for immediate occupancy in some cities.
A rental platform called COHO has analysed over 13,000 shared living listings across Britain* and found that only 58.6% of rooms being advertised are listed as being available for immediate move-in.
Furthermore, a significant 27% of current listings still won’t be available for at least one to three months, forcing many tenants to plan well in advance for moving house or relocating to a new city. What’s more, an estimated 10% of current shared living listings are more than three months away from being available.
COHO’s city-by-city analysis shows great regional variation in immediate availability.
In Brighton, tenants who need immediate accommodation are facing a particularly tough challenge because only 11% of current listings are available for move-in right away. Furthermore, just 32.7% are available in a month’s time.
Just 28.1% of shared living opportunities in Nottingham are immediately available, while 40% are listed with a waiting period of at least one to three months.
Meanwhile, immediate availability also accounts for less than half of current listings Newcastle (46.7%) and Bristol (49.6%).
Conversely, 85.7% of listings in Birmingham are available to move into straight away, as are 74.5% of shared houses in Sheffield, and 72.2% in Glasgow.
A COHO spokesperson says; “Navigating the shared living market can occasionally feel a bit overwhelming. Trying to find a home in the right area can be tricky enough, but finding one whose availability aligns with your requirements can be a further challenge.
‘We will always recommend that people give themselves a decent amount of time to find the right home for their next move, but also appreciate that this luxury isn’t always possible when circumstances change unexpectedly or other life factors demand an immediate relocation.
‘The best piece of advice I can give is that even if you’re in a rush to move, do as much as you can to avoid moving into a property where you know nothing at all about the housemates you’ll be living with.
‘The traditional ways of finding shared living properties can make it difficult to quickly know whether you’re going to have compatibility with housemates – requiring you to find time to meet them face to face at least once – but COHO’s revolutionary platform means you can have a good idea of potential compatibility as easily as you can see the asking price. So instead of your time constraints forcing you to take a punt and hope for the best, you can instantly see the ages, interests, and lifestyles of the people already living in the property.”
