20 Jun 2021 | 5 mins

There’s nothing like that moment when you’re sitting around with your mates and you joke that you should live together, but instead of just laughing it off, someone says ‘nah seriously, we should do that’. Moving in with mates, especially when it’s your first time moving out can be an amazing experience where you get to make memories for life.

But it can be a little tricky sometimes, and the last thing you want is for anyone to feel resentful about how much they’re paying in rent for what they’re getting, ‘cause that stuff really builds up.

Here’s some tips on how to make sure you’re splitting your rent and keeping everyone happy:

Figure out how much you and your mates are willing to spend

Before you even think about divvying everything up, everyone needs to take a look at their budgets. Rent prices in major cities are pretty cooked so it won’t be easy, but a good rule of thumb is to never pay more than ⅓ of your income on rent. Once all the bills, groceries and treats are all paid for, you really want to set a little extra aside for your savings. 

What you don’t want to happen is to be really hyped for a place and end up paying way too much in rent to actually enjoy living day-to-day. Gather everyone’s max rent up, then knock it down a little and that should give you a good guide as to the kind of place you can actually afford to all live in. Lowering the max price will also give you all some flexibility if you want to pay different amounts based on your rooms.

Find out what your new housemates’ deal-breakers and negotiables are, and stick to ‘em

This is a huge one - if you’re signing a year-long lease with your housemates, you really want to make sure that everyone’s all on the same page about the place.

In a group chat or a piece of paper or whatever you want, make sure you take down:

  • Stuff your flatmates need in a place - stuff like car spaces, or a minimum number of bathrooms for how many people are living there.

  • Features everyone would like to have. Maybe someone really wants a gas stove, but they can live with induction, or they want a yard, but could deal without. This stuff helps if you’re doing inspections for a whole group so you know what to look out for, but also might pay off further down the negotiating track

  • Things your mates absolutely cannot handle. Some people hate living on a busy street, or don’t like big houses that are tough to clean. If it’s all out on the table, it makes looking for places way easier because you won’t waste time inspecting ones that you’re bound to not like.

 

Once you’ve found a place, choose your rooms and rent based on what your priorities are

Most places will usually have rooms which are a bunch of different sizes, with different perks. Hopefully if you picked a place based on it having a bunch of stuff you and your flatmates like, you can then divvy it up based on what’s important to you, compared to someone else.

If you’re lucky, each room will have a perk that one of the housemates loves, and it’ll make sense to split it three ways. But if the rooms range in size and quality, then you may want to sweeten up the deal for someone getting the short end of the stick by offering them a lower rent contribution per week. 

 

Pick a rent payment system that works for everyone

 

This is one of the trickiest sections to get right, ‘cause having someone not paying their rent on time is a surefire way to have things turn south quickly. Different systems work for different people, depending on how much they earn, and how consistent the money is.

One hot tip is to get everyone to set up automatic transactions through their online banking apps. That way if you’re the one making the actual rent transfer to the landlord, you don’t have to chase people up all the time or end up out of pocket for a couple of days. Believe me, nagging your mates gets real old real fast. 

Another one is to make sure you’ve got your rent split-up somewhere in writing. It’s sad when it happens, but if for whatever reason someone is making you late on your payments and it all goes south, you may need some facts to back you up.

The biggest piece of advice I have is that if you’re doubting that you trust your mates enough to split renting an apartment together, you can always just live in separate houses. Living together can really bring you all together, but if the vibes are off it can all fall apart too.
 

Figuring out how to split rent is one of those things that you never really get taught properly by your ‘rents or in school. That’s why we’ve got our Academy, with all the info you need to help you through those big life moments.

This information is general in nature and has been prepared without taking your objectives, needs and overall financial situation into account. For this reason, you should consider the appropriateness of the information to your own circumstances and, if necessary, seek appropriate professional advice.