House Pals Reviews

HousePals is a flatmate and flatshare website that is based in the UK, giving users access to a wide number of adverts spread across the country. With coverage of most major cities, HousePals has been growing in popularity since it began serving customers in this market in 2001. Though not quite as big as some other services in this category, HousePals is super easy to use and so well worth checking out if you’re looking to find a flatmate or somewhere to live in a hurry.

The listings themselves on HousePals have got to be the site’s biggest asset. Adverts are easy to create and well laid out, with all of the information you need at your fingertips. You are encouraged to place ads with multiple large, high-resolution photos which helps in choosing the sort of place you would like to live in. At the bottom of the ad, there is a quick-view panel which shows you the key facts about the property, the people living in it, the number of view it has had, the age of the advert, rent and deposit amounts and much more. By showing you all of this information for each advert, it makes it so much easier to judge whether or not a room might still be available and whether it’s right for you.

A number of additional features help to make HousePals even better. Firstly, interactive streetview and maps are built-in to adverts, so it’s really easy to see where a property is situated. The dashboard feature lets advert-holders make quick changes to their adverts, take them down, relist old adverts and more with only a few clicks – perfect if you’re a landlord who often lists the same property multiple times a year. The site also has helpful tips and advice for landlords and house-hunters which will certainly assist those who aren’t familiar with the process.  Finally, the MyShortlist feature lets you keep track of the properties you like, making it easier to book viewings once you have seen what’s out there.

Probably the biggest downside of HousePals is the membership cost. Users can of course list adverts, search for others and view them for free, but in order to get in touch with the vendor of a particular ad, you need to upgrade.  Short term upgraded membership is around £1 a day and does get cheaper depending on how long you expect to be a member, but even at its cheapest, a year’s membership will set you back more than £80.  Considering that membership of Spareroom for the same amount of time is priced around the same, we think HousePals is a little steep given that the site’s membership base is considerably smaller.

Although we liked using HousePals and found it really easy to use, premium membership is quite expensive when compared with other sites in this category. As only premium members can contact holders of adverts that are less than 7 days old, we wondered whether you can get very much out of the site without upgrading. If you like the sound of HousePals, hit the link below to give it a go – if you’re still not convinced, why not read about the other big sites in this category and see whether one of them might be slightly more suitable for you?

Check out our #1 rated site instead! Why not check out Spare Room, our top rated UK Flatmate Website and winner of our prestigious Gold Award! You can also check out our Top 10 UK Flatmate Websites here!

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