Most Desired Flatmate Traits

Despite COVID-19, searches for SpareRoom have increased by 54.9% since March 2020. With remote working taking over the capital, finding the perfect flatmate has never been more crucial – after all, you’re likely to be spending 24/7 with them whilst working from home!

In this study, CIA Landlord has identified the most desired roommate traits in London by analysing SpareRoom data to reveal the most popular adverts by age, gender, job title and even preferences including LGBT friendly, smoker friendly and pet friendly.

So where are you best suited to find your ideal flatmate in London? Take a look at the findings below:

Marketing, Teaching, Media and Engineering Revealed as the Most Desired Professions for a Flatmate in London

With over 1,174 advertised listings, Marketing professionals officially have the most attractive job titles for flatmates, followed by Teachers (1031 listings), Media professionals (818 listings) and Engineers (790 listings).

London’s Top 5 Most Desired Job Titles for Flatmates

Healthcare workers, Journalists, Accountants, Data professionals and Recruiters have the least attractive job titles for flatmates, with the number of advertised flatmate listings combined for these 5 professions reaching the same number of listings as just marketing professionals alone.

London’s Top 5 Least Desired Job Titles for Flatmates

Waltham Forest Is the Most LGBT+ Friendly Borough for Flatmates, Followed by Lambeth and Hackney

At just a short 30-minute journey into central London, Waltham Forest has been dubbed the most LGBT+ friendly borough for roommates, with over 17.56% of all LGBT+ room wanted listings in London based in the area. Lambeth follows in second, having elected the UK’s first openly HIV+ mayor in April 2020, the borough’s various involvements in supporting the community stays true to its citizens – with over 14.58% of all of London’s LGBT+ house listings featured in the area.

Richmond Upon Thames Is the Least LGBT+ Friendly Borough for Flatmates in London

Amongst the most affluent areas in London, there are 0 listings for LGBT-friendly households in Richmond upon Thames, Barnet, Havering, Bexley and Hillingdon – suggesting a lacking culture or community for the LGBT+ community.

Hackney Has the Most Smoker & Pet-Friendly Flatmates in London, Followed by Waltham Forest and Islington

If you’re looking for the most easy-going neighbours and flatmates in London, head to Hackney where the area ranks first for smoker and pet-friendliness. For most landlords and flatmates opposed to smoking, head to Havering where just 8 out of 7,751 rooms wanted listings specifying smoker-friendly properties.

Top 10 Best London Boroughs for Smoker-Friendly Flatmates

All relatively central Zone 1 / 2 boroughs, Hackney, Waltham Forest, Islington, Lambeth and Newham all have the most easy-going flatmates with regards to smoking, and with plenty of options at over 500+ house listings in the top 5 boroughs.

Top 10 Worst London Boroughs for Smoker-Friendly Flatmates

Havering, Bexley and Enfield all have a low number of advertised smoker-friendly flatmates however in comparison to the number of room wanted listings in the area (24 for Havering, 29 for Bexley, 186 for Enfield) the ratio of smoker-friendly homes is relatively high, suggesting that if you’d like to find smoker-friendly flatmates in this area, there is still the opportunity to!

Top 10 Best London Boroughs for Pet-Friendly Flatmates

Top 10 Worst London Boroughs for Pet-Friendly Flatmates

If you’re not keen on pets, house hunt in Bexley where 0 listings out of over 1000 pet-friendly house listings in London accept pets. Havering, Hillingdon and Barnet follow closely behind with less than 10 pet-friendly properties across these boroughs.

Islington Revealed as the Most Inclusive Borough for Flatmates of All Ages

Whether you’re looking for a professional, student or even ex-pat type flat – there’s a room for all ages in Islington. With over 695 flatmate adverts in the borough alone, 25-34 year olds were the most common age cohort for the borough, followed by 35-44-year-olds, and 18-24-year-olds.

Top 10 London Boroughs for 18 to 24-Year-Old Flatmates

Top 10 London Boroughs for 25 to 34-Year-Old Flatmates

Top 10 London Boroughs for 35 to 44-Year-Old Flatmates

Top 10 London Boroughs for 45 to 54-Year-Old Flatmates

Top 10 London Boroughs for 55+-Year-Old Flatmates

Sources and Methodology

Research conducted 02/09/20 – 07/09/20.

To find the most desired and least desired roommate traits, we analysed SpareRoom data to reveal the most commonly advertised professions, ages and preferences throughout London.

Job titles have been searched as keywords exactly as listed in SpareRoom. This may result in the exclusion of keyword listings where the title was similar but not the same due to the functionality of the source’s search.

Each option point has been treated individually. Where data has been combined to show the “worst” combination of traits, this has been done on an index basis rather than using each as an individual search.

e.g. No searches have been performed for homes that are “LGBT friendly with pets and smokers allowed”. Instead, individual searches have been performed for LGBT, pets, and smokers, and these are combined into a single index to show the least desirable combination.

• www.spareroom.co.uk

Notes to Editors:

If you’re interested in covering our study, we only ask you to please refer back to this study with a link to this post.

PR contact: sarah.fleming@kaizen.co.uk