Where to find a room in the UK without paying agency fees
Eleven sites for finding flatshares, direct-from-landlord lets, and house-sit stays — plus the free advice services that protect your deposit.
Flatshares
SpareRoom
The default for flatshares — pay for Early Bird if you're hunting in London.
By far the most-used flatshare site in Britain. Free to browse and message, but in London the £10 Early Bird upgrade gets you to listings 24 hours before everyone else — usually the difference between a viewing and a 'taken'.
- Flatshares
- London Early Bird
- Free messaging
OpenRent
Direct from landlord, no agent fees ever.
Landlords list themselves, you message them directly. No tenant fees — agent fees became illegal in 2019 anyway, but OpenRent never charged them. Fewer listings than Rightmove; the ones that exist are usually cheaper.
- No agent fees
- Direct landlord
- Free to use
Roomgo
SpareRoom's smaller competitor — sometimes a better signal-to-noise.
Fewer listings than SpareRoom but fewer 'too good to be true' scams. Free to use, decent search filters, particularly for people moving for work mid-tenancy.
- Flatshares
- Free
- Verified profiles
Help & advice
Shelter UK
Free housing advice from the country's biggest housing charity.
If a landlord isn't protecting your deposit, isn't returning it, or is threatening to evict you — Shelter has a free helpline and online guides written by housing solicitors. Use this before you pay anyone for advice.
- Free
- Solicitor-grade advice
- Helpline
Citizens Advice — Housing
Free, government-funded, generally excellent.
Step-by-step guides on disputes, evictions, deposit recovery, and benefits for housing costs. Pair with Shelter for the legal heavy lifting; CA is better at the day-to-day questions.
- Free
- Step-by-step guides
- In-person bureaux
Generation Rent
Tenant rights advocacy with practical campaign tools.
Less a search site, more a tenants' rights resource. Useful template letters for deposit disputes and complaints. Their newsletter covers law changes that materially affect renters.
- Template letters
- Policy updates
- Free
Free & low-cost stays
TrustedHousesitters
Stay rent-free in exchange for looking after a dog.
Annual subscription (~£100), then unlimited stays in real homes around the UK and the world. The animals are the price; the homes are usually nicer than yours. Best for digital nomads and between-leases gaps.
- Pet-sit for stays
- Worldwide
- Verified hosts
Couchsurfing
Free short-term stays with locals, post-pandemic.
Now requires a small monthly subscription, but stays are still free. Best for travel, between-leases gaps of a week or two, or testing a city before committing to a flat there.
- Free stays
- Worldwide
- Community-vetted
Major portals
Rightmove
The UK's largest property portal — set alerts and be fast.
Most listings, biggest reach, but mostly through agents. Worth setting email alerts for your target postcode and price; alerts arrive faster than the daily roundup.
- Most listings
- Email alerts
- Map search
Zoopla
Rightmove's main rival, with better local data.
Roughly the same listings; better neighbourhood data (sold prices, school catchments, area stats). Useful as a second portal so you don't miss agency-exclusive listings.
- Sold prices
- Area data
- Map search