Roommates
How should roommates split rent when the rooms are different sizes?
Updated By the Housing Rocket moderators
Short answer
Split it by what each person gets, not evenly. Give each bedroom a weight based on its size, private bathroom, closet space and light, then divide the rent by those weights so the person in the biggest or best room pays the most.
Shared space (kitchen, living room, hallways) is used equally, so a simple method is to split the rent into a shared half and a private half:
- Split half the rent evenly between everyone. That covers the common areas.
- Divide the other half by bedroom square footage. A room with 40% of the total bedroom space pays 40% of that half.
- Adjust for extras everyone agrees matter, such as a private bathroom, a walk-in closet, a balcony, or a room next to a noisy street.
- Check the result passes the gut test: would each person happily take their room at that price?
Example: $3,000 rent, three roommates. $1,500 is split evenly ($500 each). The other $1,500 goes by size, so rooms at 180, 120 and 100 square feet pay $675, $450 and $375. Totals: $1,175, $950 and $875. If the big room also has the only private bathroom, you might shift another $50 to $100 onto it.
If you cannot agree, let people bid: each person says what they would pay for each room, and rooms go to the highest bids that add up to the rent. Whatever you choose, write it into your roommate agreement so nobody reopens it in month three.
Want the whole picture? Read How to Find a Roommate You Can Actually Live With.
