Editor's note: This brief was summarised by The Property AI Team from a report by The Negotiator. Read the original article for full details.
HMO Tenants Demand More Transparency on Housemate Safety
HMO tenants want greater transparency about who they will be living with, according to new research from shared living platform COHO. The study found that 42% of tenants move into shared accommodation with little or no information about their future housemates.
The findings, drawn from responses from 5,145 UK HMO tenants in COHO's State of Shared Living Report, raise questions around compatibility, transparency and safety across the UK's shared living sector. According to COHO, sharers who move in blind are more likely to experience concerns around personal safety.
Safety Concerns Reported by Tenants
21% of tenants say they have felt unsafe at some point because of a housemate. The figure rises to 27% among those aged 45 and above. Men, at 22%, were slightly more likely than women, at 21%, to report having felt unsafe.
COHO says the findings show a disconnect between the way shared accommodation is currently offered and what tenants want from their living environment. 60% wish they had known more about their prospective housemates before moving in, while 53% want greater input about who joins their household. On compatibility, 40% say they would be willing to pay more in rent to live with housemates they knew would be a good fit.
Shared Living No Longer a Last Resort
According to COHO's data, 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. More than 40% of sharers are aged 30 or over, of which 89% are in paid work, while 55% say shared living is a lifestyle choice rather than a last resort.
Across England and Wales there are currently 482,788 HMOs, according to the National HMO Register, housing more than 2 million people.
Vann Vogstad, Chief Executive of COHO, said the research exposes a major gap in the way shared living works today, adding that asking people to share their homes with complete strangers while giving them little or no information is not something the sector can ignore. He said there is an outdated view that HMOs are simply student housing or a last resort, and that landlords and operators must move away from treating housemates as anonymous occupants and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.
Source: The Negotiator