Recommended Share Houses for Two People

The houses in this group accept two people in one private room. That makes them an option for couples, married pairs, friends and siblings starting something new together, and it makes the search different from a search for a single room. The figure on the listing, the contract and the rules for moving out all work differently once two names are involved, so the habit of scanning listings quickly will mislead you here.

Measure the room against two sets of belongings

Floor area on its own tells you little. What matters is whether you can walk past the bed once it is in place, where the closet sits, and whether two wardrobes, two sets of work things and two suitcases have somewhere to go. Write down what you both own before the viewing, because it turns a vague question about space into a concrete one. Ask about storage outside the room as well: some houses offer a locker or a shared storeroom, and that changes how much the room itself has to hold.

Settle the contract and the money first

Ask whether the rent shown covers the room or one person, whether a second occupant adds a fixed fee, and how the service charge and utilities are counted, per room or per head. Then ask the questions people tend to leave until later. What happens if one of you moves out early? Can the person who stays keep the room, and at what rent? Can the name on the contract be changed? Are you both screened at application? These answers are far easier to get before you sign than after.

Think about the hours you each keep

Two people in one room share it at every hour, including the ones when one of you is asleep and the other is not. If your schedules differ, look for where a desk could go, whether a lamp can light one corner without lighting the whole room, and whether the house has a lounge or work space open late. A room that works comfortably at eight in the evening can be awkward at six in the morning.

Before you start viewing, agree as a pair on the conditions neither of you wants to give up. Drawing up a shortlist goes much faster when two people are working from the same list.

Check what the listed figure covers before you compare anything: one room, or one person. Then add the service charge, any second occupant fee and the utilities, and compare houses on what the two of you would actually pay each month. That combined total is the number worth writing down.

Line up three questions. First, the terms for two occupants: the fee, who signs the contract, and what happens if one of you leaves. Second, whether the room holds two people and their belongings with a workable path through it. Third, how the shared rooms feel with two of you in them, since a pair cooking together takes up the kitchen differently from one person. Ask whether the house applies any rules specifically to rooms with two occupants, and whether the other residents are told in advance that a pair is moving in.

When you inquire, put the money questions in writing. Does the rent shown include both of you, is the service charge counted per room or per person, and what happens to the contract if one of you moves out? Ask about the screening and whose name goes on the agreement too, since that often decides how long the process takes.

At the viewing, picture the room with the bed and the storage already in place and walk what is left. Then step outside the room and talk through the rest of the house: when each of you would use the kitchen and the washroom, how much time you want to spend in the lounge, and what you would do on a night when one of you has a visitor. Other residents will read the two of you as a unit, so it helps to have settled that between yourselves first. Take the same list of questions to every viewing and compare your answers afterward.