HMO tenants seeking more housemate safety

Houses in multiple occupation (HMO) tenants are calling for greater transparency about who they will be living with.

It comes as new research reveals that more than two out of five – at 42% – move into shared accommodation with little or no information about their future housemates.

Consequently, sharers who move in blind are more likely to experience concerns around personal safety, says shared living platform, COHO, which conducted the study.

More than one out of five tenants – at 21% – say they have felt unsafe at some point because of a housemate, with the figure rising to more than one out of four – at 27% – among those aged 45 and above.

Men – at 22% – were also slightly more likely than women – at 21% – to report having felt unsafe.

Tenants feeling unsafe in their own home, even once, is not something the sector can ignore.”

Based on responses from 5,145 UK HMO tenants, COHO’s State of Shared Living Report raises fresh questions around compatibility, transparency and maintaining safety across the UK’s shared living sector.

Across England and Wales there are currently 482,788 HMOs, according to the National HMO Register, housing more than 2 million people.

The COHO findings show a disconnect between the way shared accommodation is currently offered and what tenants want from their living environment.

A total of 60% wish they had known more about their prospective housemates before moving in, while more than half – at 53% – want greater input about who joins their household.

Stressing the importance of compatibility, 40% say they would be willing to pay more in rent to live with housemates they knew would be a good fit.

Rising rents, a shortage of affordable housing and the difficulty of getting onto the property ladder are making shared living an increasingly important part of the housing market.

For many renters, sharing is no longer simply a short-term solution associated with students or those at the beginning of their careers. More than 40% are aged 30 or over, of which 89% are in paid work, according to COHO’s data, while 55% say shared living is a lifestyle choice rather than a last resort.

Yet while the financial benefits of shared living are clear, COHO’s research suggests one crucial factor is too often overlooked – knowing who you’ll be sharing your home with.

Vann Vogstad (pictured), Chief Executive of COHO, says: “Our research exposes a major gap in the way shared living works today. We ask people to share their homes with complete strangers, yet in many cases they are given little or no information about who they are going to live with. Tenants feeling unsafe in their own home, even once, is not something the sector can ignore.

“There is also an outdated view that HMOs are simply student housing or a last resort for people who cannot afford to live alone. That is no longer the reality. As our findings show, shared living is a way of life for all ages, so the industry has a responsibility to make that experience better.

“Tenants are telling us clearly that they want more transparency, more choice and greater compatibility with the people they live with. Shared living should not mean accepting whoever happens to be allocated the room next door. We need to move away from simply filling rooms and start thinking about creating homes where people actually feel comfortable living together.

“As shared living becomes a bigger part of the housing market, landlords and operators must move away from treating housemates as anonymous occupants and instead recognise compatibility as an important part of creating successful shared homes.”