Hi,

Very roughly, round here a 1 bedroom flat rents for say £500, 2 bedroom flat rents for around £600, Whilst a cheap 5 bedroom house rents for £850.

There must be quite a few people here spending a lot on rent for a single bedroom flat, when it would be much cheaper to share a larger house with a couple of other people. Not only would the rent be cheaper, you'd also save on bills & council tax, etc.

Why not have a part of the forum designed to allow users to get in touch with others in their town, with a view to setting up houseshares? It would be far less practical for families, but even those with kids would possibly save a lot sharing a large house with another family!

This utility may help some people save more towards their deposits, whilst also putting a tiny bit of downwards pressure on the type of smaller places FTBers will be purchasing. If you don't have kids and are renting a smaller place on your own, maybe to some extent you are subsidising the BTL speculator who has taken FTB housing out of reach?

[edit: If it ever worked, it'd be a bit like turning a tiny bit of the HPC virtual community to a real HPC community!]