Bristol is the best city for house shares, according to new research by broadband and utilities provider, Glide, which looked to identify the best house share hotspots across the country for students and young professionals.

The research ranked the biggest UK cities on a range of measures, including the number of house shares in the city, number of job opportunities advertised, the cost of rent, university rankings and broadband speed – resulting in a top ten for those studying or looking to start their careers.

Bristol came top of the ranking – scoring the best overall by just one point. The city ranked fifth for the number of house shares available with 945, and whilst rents were third highest in the list, the city also boasts high University rankings, 229 jobs advertised per 10,000 people and high Wi Fi and broadband speed – an essential for any student or young professional – which allowed it to just climb into first place.

Nottingham’s consistency across the rankings meant the city came in second – with its job opportunities, broadband speeds and university rankings all scoring in the top ten, it was only let down by relatively high rental costs. Birmingham made up the top three locations, with its comparably low rents helping it to score well, but was let down by having only 145 job opportunities per 10,000 people currently advertised.

The top ten house share hotspots were revealed to be:

  1. Bristol
  2. Nottingham
  3. Birmingham
  4. Manchester
  5. Liverpool
  6. Derby
  7. Southampton
  8. Brighton and Hove
  9. Leicester
  10. Portsmouth

London was the best location for variety of house share opportunities, with over 19,000 rooms available, however with the average monthly rent six times higher than the most affordable city to live in (average rent in London is £3,278 pcm, compared to £499 in Bradford), the capital ranked 17th.

London, Edinburgh, Manchester were the top three cities for university rankings, with the cities all boasting institutions in the top ten of the UK University Rankings 2019. When looking at available job opportunities, York, Coventry and Derby were the top three ranked cities, with 470, 408 and 382 jobs available per 10,000 people.

“With so many students and young professionals choosing to house share, we wanted to find the best cities across the UK to suit their needs. When looking for a new house share, there are some important considerations to think about before signing on the dotted line, including location compared to your university campus or workplace, transport links and monthly bills.

“Our bill splitting service allows all utilities and broadband bills to be managed in one easy bill that is split equally among the tenants, avoiding the headaches and potential arguments.”

To get a free quote from Glide for your house share, visit: https://portal.glide.co.uk/join.