The platform uses psychometric tests to help you decide who to live with
By Thomas Ansell
More and more people are living in shared houses later into their lives, and in cities like Groningen with large student populations there are more multiple-occupant houses than ever. This comes with its own difficulties, from ‘no Internationals’ listings on Kamernet, through to nightmare stories of ex-housemates taking novel approaches to privacy, cleaning, and cooking (or a lack of any).
Couple this is a serious ongoing housing crisis, unstable tenancies, and university recruitment policies that tend towards maximalism and it’s good news to hear of a new house-sharing matching platform launching. Enter, Roomwise.
Aside from being a completely free service to help people find new housemates (and new places to live), its got an ace up its (digital) sleeve: using a modified version of the ‘Big Five‘ personality traits quiz to help match people. So if you’re someone that can’t leave a mug unwashed, or who cooks entirely using a microwave, you’re likely to be matched with someone that has similar tendencies, or at least isn’t driven mad by yours.
There’s a ‘group search’ function, as well as options for posting your house, or indeed self.
Most of the team behind the platform have undergone the torturous grind of finding housing in Groningen as an International, and they hope to be able to bring their service to other Dutch housing pressure cookers like The Hague, Amsterdam, and Utrecht in the future.
Header image by James Baldwin on Unsplash
