7 times the small screen perfectly summed up house-sharing hell

Now, unless you’re in a relationship or in a position to splurge a solid £1,000 a month (at the very least) on a single room, the renting life will see you co-habiting with other people, likely for years at a time.

In university, this is an essential rite of passage, throughout which essential domestic facets like hygiene, diplomacy and self-respect will remain niggling details best avoided.

The subsequent years act, then, as a kind of liminal period between infantile crapulence and the crushing inevitability of adulthood. This is what we at Roost are interested in today – specifically, the glorious representation of such through the medium of television! (OK, and one essential filmic example.)

Onefinestay: Looking for a medium term rent in London, Paris, New York or Los Angeles?

Onefinestay is a short to mid term letting company that offers homes and flats across London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles. Plugging a gap that is a major bugbear of many residents in the four cities, the company offers empty homes for temporary rents of up to six months.

Here’s what the Monopoly board would look like for London’s renters today

Ah, Monopoly – our old childhood friend. You taught us many a life lesson. You taught us how important it is to get your head in the game quickly (for fear of being left with the iron). You taught us that being a banker means you can steal your friends’ taxes, while pretending to put them back in the bank. At the ripe age of five, you’d even taught us just how shit the Old Kent Road is.

21 London markets for stuff to stuff inside your rental

There’s nothing like the magic of a good object – a red pebble, wonky cactus or glittery jacket.

Cue: the markets and car boot sales of London, where one can spend many a happy hour purchasing bargains you don’t need but that would lend a certain je ne sais quoi to the bare spaces in your rental.

The world’s 20 most expensive cities to rent a property

Is it any surprise that London has come out top in the world’s most expensive cities to rent a property? According to figures from the Global Property Guide, to rent a home in inner London you’ll be paying around £7,136 ($11,089) per month. The numbers are based on a 120sq.m property, usually an apartment. Monaco is the most expensive place to live in the world, with a buying price per sq. m costing as much as $60,114.

The website for residential property investors says a 250 sq.m apartment in a prime location in the capital could cost around £6,200,000. While the figures are based on luxurious areas of London like Kensington and Chelsea, it nevertheless highlights just how impossible it is for many people to live in central London.

Global Property Guide suggests that foreign property investors in Britain are being blamed for the extortionate house prices in London.

But its not just Londoners who are suffering. According to Homelet, regional rental prices are now growing faster than the capital.

Click here to see the full infographic from infogr.am

The world’s most expensive cities to rent a home | Create infographics

So perhaps we should all move to The Bahamas. Unlike London, it has great beaches AND it’s only 19th on the list.

New York was the second most expensive city to rent property, with an average rent per month of $7,225, followed by Hong Kong with rents of $6,431.

Roost reflections – life on a London canal boat

Following our recent post debunking the money myths around living on London’s waterways, we set out gain first-hand testimonials from people actively living life on the city’s canal network.

Jo Hughes – a PHD student and houseboat enthusiast – spoke to Roost about her shift from land to water, the ever-present threat of mechanical disasters and her advice for for wannabe converts to the boating life.

Little Venice – a boaters paradise. Courtesy Kit Logan.

Where is the best place to work and rent in England?

The City of London is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the best place to live and work in the UK according to the areas average weekly pay and weekly rental cost.

The figures are taken from the Office of National Statistics’ ‘Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings’ and Gov.uk‘s live tables on rents, lettings and tenancies.

The Queen’s speech on housing with Ben Abrams of CWU Youth: Roostcast episode 1

Generation Rent launched its latest campaign earlier this month with a demand for a queen’s speech on housing.

Meet Rococo Wonderland: a masterclass in interior design

Rococo Wonderland is an artist and freelance interior designer from east London, and her neon light installations have been setting art shows across the country alight in recent months. Wonderland let us inside her home to speak about her about interior design style and inspiration.

Building the Dream: live blog

Hello Roosters! With all the recent hype about the build to rent scheme, we here at Roost were interested to see if people are really building the dream, or on a one way route to their very own nightmare.