Three ways to split
- Equally. Simple, and fair when the bedrooms are much the same.
- By bedroom size. The part of the rent that pays for shared space — kitchen, living room, hallways — is split equally; the rest follows the size of each bedroom. Raise the shared part for an apartment with a large living room, lower it for one that is mostly bedrooms. A private bathroom or a balcony is worth a few points more: agree it between you.
- By income. Each pays in proportion to what they earn. Common for couples, rarer between roommates.
Shares are worked out to the cent, and the cents lost to rounding go to the largest remainders, so the shares always add up to the rent exactly.
Before you move in together
- Agree the split, the bills and the deposit in writing, even in a message everyone answers.
- Find out whose name is on the lease. Where everyone signs one lease, each of you is often responsible for the whole rent, not just your share.
- Decide what happens if someone leaves early: who finds the replacement, and who covers the rent until then.
Working out what each of you can afford first? The rent affordability calculator does it person by person.