Mercifully, long gone are the days where looking for a place to rent in London meant poring over ads in the paper. Naturally these days we have a plethora of apps at our disposal to make the process of finding your new London pad that little bit more straightforward. Not sure where to start? Well, it’s your lucky day. We’ve rounded up our pick of the most useful. Happy housemate hunting!

Move Bubble

The chaps over at Move Bubble developed this easy-to-use rental search app as a direct result of their own bad experiences trying to navigate the rental market in London. Available properties are updated in real time (hallelujah!), so as soon as one gets snapped up it’s removed from the system. When you find a property you love, you can arrange a viewing and even submit an offer through the app. You’re also able to review as you go – it’s one of those ‘intelligent’ interfaces, so the more you use it, the better it’ll understand what you’re after (so the good people over there say, anyway).

Patch Property

Patch is another resource for renters and combines a property search with a private messaging app, so you can share the homes you like the look of with your significant other (or make fun of the decor in the ones you don’t. We won’t judge you, but just know it’ll take you longer to find a new place if you waste time mucking about like that.)

Roompik

If you’re looking for a new flatmate, Roompik might be the answer. You can search for people seeking flatshares or flatshares seeking people, and the profiles of each make it simple to navigate and search.

Boxman

Housing sharing can often mean duplicate toasters and/ or not *quite* enough space for your stuff. Enter Boxman, the on-demand self storage company. They’ll deliver sturdy boxes straight to your door then return to whisk them away to storage when you’re good and ready - easy peasy. Another great use for Boxman is that they can take your stuff during your house move, so if you’ve got several boxes of things to move but not quite enough to require a van, Boxman can pick up your stuff, keep it for you until you’re ready, then deliver it to your new place at the touch of a button.

Splitwise

This genius little app keeps track of who’s bought what and who owes who. Essential for shared houses, and guaranteed to nip brewing arguments in the bud. You’re welcome.

IOU

‘IOU’ sounds like the app version of the post-it note on the fridge, but take a look a little more closely at the app and you’ll see it’s actually a ‘debt management’ tool. This one’s more about keeping track of what you owe others and what they owe you as it is a house-wide tracker, so it’s also useful if you need reminding to pay gym memberships or check your bank fees.

VENMO

Venmo is an app which allows you to instantly pay friends for your share of dinner or that cinema ticket you didn’t have the cash for that time. You connect your bank account, much like you would with PayPal (who actually own the app and before you ask, yes, you could just use PayPal) and you can say goodbye to forgotten IOUs. Easy peasy.

Our groceries

If you’ve ever noticed in the morning there’s no milk in the fridge and come home in the evening with four pints of the white stuff only to find your three housemates have done the same, then this app’s for you. Our Groceries is a virtual shopping list which you share with your people. When an item’s bought, you cross it off the list, thus alleviating the eternal problem of multiple packets of pasta, loo roll or – yes – milk.

Chorma

If chores are a sore point in your house, this app helps you list and allocate what needs doing so you all know who to berate if the rubbish hasn’t been taken out.

Tody

Household chores don’t all need to be done every day – or every week for that matter – but they do need to get done. Tody tracks when you last cleaned the loo and gives you a gentle nudge when it’s time to break out the bucket and cleaning products again.

ACASA (formerly Splittable)

Acasa (previously Splittable) is a household management app, but one that’s focused on household and utility bills. You’re able to set up the account so that you can pay your bills directly from the app, and because it’s linked with those companies you can also keep a watchful eye on the tariffs you’re signed up to as well.

We know that no matter how fabulous your new flat, often there’s just not quite enough room for all your earthly belongings. Here at Boxman we can help you store your stuff until you find a bigger place (or one of your own where you’ll justifiably have use for that juicer you got last year). How does it work, you ask? Well, it really couldn’t be simpler. We’ll deliver our sturdy boxes to your house, you pack them up and let us know when you’d like us to return to whisk them off to storage for as long as you might need them to stay there. Need stuff back? No problem. It’s as simple to book a delivery too. Find out more here or give us a call. We like to chat.

Featured Image by Paul Bence on Unsplash