A house share is the term commonly used when non-related people live together, usually because the cost of living alone is too expensive. Often people might be brought together through circumstance and become friends (or not as the case may be) through living together, rather than already being friends.
House shares a particularly common in major cities where the cost of property, especially in recent times has become increasingly expensive therefore making it more difficult for young people and first time buyers to get on the property ladder.
People in house shares come from all walks of life, but typical groups would include students, graduates, young professionals, nurses, short-term contract workers and visitors from other countries.
Usually each person or couple in a house share has their own room, but there will be communal areas such as kitchens, bathrooms and living and dining rooms.

Flat Share

A flat share has the same definition as a house share, but refers to people living in shared flats or apartments.

House Mate

A house mate is a person who lives in a house share with you, and although the word mate indicates a friendship, the reasons that housemates live together is often through convenience (initially at least) rather than a desire to live together.

Flat Mate

A flatmate, like a housemate refers to the people who you share your home with. Flatmates is the phrase typically used when the property being shared would best be described as a flat or apartment.

Roommate

A room mate is a term typically used in the United States to describe a flat mate or housemate. Although the term suggests literally sharing a room, this doesn’t necessarily have top be the case. This term could simply refer to the sharing of a house, flat or apartment.

Lodger

A lodger is the term used for a person who rents a room off of the owner of the property whilst the owner of the property is still living there. This is a good way for a property owner with high living costs to share the cost of bills and also take a tax free income contribution from the person who is lodging with them and sharing their home.

Housemate Profile

As mentioned in the above terms, housemates and flatmates aren’t necessarily friends before they become part of your house share. Therefore, housemate profiles have been created in www.abodewithme.com to help you to find housemates with the characteristics wanted by you in your perfect house mate. By matching these search criteria with your wanted criteria abodewithme.com aims to increase the likelihood of a friendly and successful house or flat share. Good examples of the typical search criteria found when looking for flatmates in local newspapers might include:
• Professional female housemate wanted
• Single, non-smoking room available in house share
• Room-to-let near railway station
• Shift working house share requires new housemate, etc.
The search criteria in the profiles in www.abodewithme.com enable a more detailed and sophisticated search to be carried out on perspective housemates.