Sharing rental accommodation

Stamply

When renting accommodation, what is the typical way room prices are divided up?

Is it floor space? Or do people count single/double-glazed windows?

Or is the rest of the house the majority of what the rent goes to pay for?

It seems to me that its typical to pay twice the rent for a double room to a single room all else being equal, right?

Hypothetical example:
- House
- Two doubles, one single, one bathroom
- double rooms are 50% larger by floor-space than single room
- Total rent is €800

So the rent should be:
- doubles: €300
- single: €200

right? wrong?

I know this is all about negotiation and a bit of give but just wondering what other people think?

The Big Red Button

I definitely wouldn't agree that you'd pay double the price for a double room as opposed to a single room, all other things being equal.

It really is down to what the people living in the house agree to.

I've found that rooms are often advertised as a "double room", when in fact they've just squashed a double bed into a single room. So, in this case, I wouldn't expect to be paying much more than a single room the same size.

Other stuff like storage space, floor space, whether there's any en-suites, and sometimes the position of the room (i.e. front/back of the house? upstairs/downstairs) should be taken into account too. Also, how the parking spaces (if any) are divided up might affect the rent.

You mentioned single/double-glazed windows - yeah, you could use that to argue for reduced rent (if you're in the single-glazed room.) In this case, you also need to consider how this will impact heating bills ...

In your example, assuming total rent is €800, I think a split of around €280 for the doubles and €240 for the single would be fairer. €100 seems far too much extra to be paying for just a double room. (By the way, this is assuming that there is one person in each room - couples will usually be expected to pay more.)

Stamply

And if one of the rooms was a decent-sized double room, 50% larger than single room, with a couple living there?

Would that be twice the rent?

The Big Red Button

Stamply wrote: »

And if one of the rooms was a decent-sized double room, 50% larger than single room, with a couple living there?

Would that be twice the rent?

Honestly it still seems like too big of a gap to me - I've never come across a situation where there'd be two rooms rented in the same house, where the rent for one is double the rent for the other!

At the end of the day, it's not just the bedroom you're paying for - it's the location of the house, and the communal living area, and the facilities available, etc. It would seem unfair to me that the couple are paying quite so much, when the person with their own room benefits from all of these other things.

I guess I'd see it the same way as if two friends were sharing a twin room together in order to save on rent. Because they're sharing a room, it doesn't seem fair that they'd still have to spend the same amount (each), as someone in the same house who has a bedroom to themselves?

I guess it's a case of discussing it and trying to meet somewhere in the middle.

omega666

Stamply wrote: »

When renting accommodation, what is the typical way room prices are divided up?

Is it floor space? Or do people count single/double-glazed windows?

Or is the rest of the house the majority of what the rent goes to pay for?

It seems to me that its typical to pay twice the rent for a double room to a single room all else being equal, right?

Hypothetical example:
- House
- Two doubles, one single, one bathroom
- double rooms are 50% larger by floor-space than single room
- Total rent is €800

So the rent should be:
- doubles: €300
- single: €200

right? wrong?

I know this is all about negotiation and a bit of give but just wondering what other people think?

That pricing sounds about right unless one of the double rooms has an ensuite. In that case they should be paying a bit more.

Everyone wants a double room whereas not many people want the single so it
should command a good difference in price.