So you just found the perfect apartment and you cannot wait to sign the lease, but then something occurs to you. One of the bedrooms is significantly bigger and has a closet (a luxury in the city). You don’t want to screw over your roommate by splitting rent evenly, but you can’t imagine living anywhere else. What to do? Fortunately there is a simple formula for splitting rent that allows you to get that big room you want while your roommate isn’t left paying more than they have to.
The first thing to do is take half of the rent and assign it to the common area (living room, kitchen, etc). You’ll split this amount evenly between you and your roommate(s) seeing as you will all be using the same space. For example: if the rent is $3,000 and three people are living there, you take $1,500 for the common area and divide it into three, which makes $500 each.
The next step is a little more complex, but is still relatively simple math. Measure the square footage of each bedroom and add them all up. Whatever portion of that total someone’s room makes up is the portion of the rent they will pay. For example: if the rooms in the previously mentioned apartment are 100, 80, and 60 square feet, then those occupants would pay $625, $500, and $375 respectively. To figure these totals out you simply divide the square footage of the room by the total for all the bedrooms (i.e. 100 sq ft/240 sq ft) which gives you the percentage it makes up (41.67%) and then multiply the rent not assigned to the common area ($1,500) by the percentage. In the end the three roommates will be paying $1,125, $1,000, and $875, everyone’s happy!
Another factor you may want to consider is everyone’s income. If your roommate is making the lowest salary out of everyone then maybe they shouldn’t be renting out the biggest room. Though they’re welcome to do so, it might be easier for everyone financially if some slack is given to the roommates who aren’t rolling in the big bucks.
If you don’t care to do the math yourself there are websites you can use that will calculate the total for you, such as SplitWise.
