Moving to London after uni? This app will let you lock down your ideal grad flat before you even get there
Because London is a haystack, and all the good flats are needles
No matter how hard you fought it, the exodus of grads moving to London has swept you up in its wake, and you’ll soon be pitching up in all your best gear to start a new job in the capital – that means finding a place to live in the biggest city in the country.
You’ve heard Clapham is grad central, to the point that no one in Clapham is actually from London. You could go East if you’re feeling edgy and want to spend £8 on a turmeric latte from a bloke with tats and a massive beard. Or you could try and soak up the last dregs of real London culture somewhere like Peckham or Brixton– but make sure there’s a place that does sourdough pizza within 200m, just to be safe.
If you haven’t got mates to live with, searching online can be nearly impossible – you’ll waste your time visiting hundreds of promising-looking rooms, only to find out that the living room has been turned into another bedroom so the landlord can bag more rent, that you’ve been deceived by fish-eye camera lenses, and that 60 per cent of people you meet will be bona-fide weirdos.
But we are here with a cure for this endless, overwhelming searching. Badi is an app which lets you screen flats and housemates before you put on your shoes and go and see them.
You can swipe through rooms, based on your own needs and interests, until you find The One – kind of like a dating app but without everyone telling you how much they love dogs and gin.
The dream housemates you’ve been looking for
We all know how Tinder works, but badi helps you put those expert selective skills to good use. Simply create a profile, and badi will give you recommendations based on your lifestyle and interests, so you can meet people you might just want to live with.
You can then decide if you want to chat and suss out whether you want to live with them, or if you want to steer clear. What’s more, badi will match you with multiple potential housemates at once, so you’re totally free to keep your options open. You’ll be able to tell if you’ll get on with your roomies without trekking all the way to North Acton to find out that no, in fact you don’t.
On the other hand, if you’ve got a spare room in London that you need to fill, you can list it on badi and watch the applicants come pouring in.
Either way, you’ll be able to find the perfect housemate. And it’s way more productive than finding yourself in a neverending SpareRoom spiral, debating whether it’s worth forking out extra to get “early bird” access in your desperation.
You can also list rooms to rent if you’ve got a space going in your flat