Rupert Hunt,whose roommate-finding service has arrived in the US after success in the UK, says he shares his site by choice: ‘It can be life-changing’A dollar doesn’t secure you far in New York. A buck can secure you a weekday edition of the New York Daily News or the New York Post, or but it won’t stretch to the classic New York breakfast meal of a bagel with cream cheese. Yet for two lucky people,$1 is all they absorb to pay each month to live in a 3400-square-foot loft apartment in the Greenwich Village neighbourhood in New York City. Jacob Castaldi, 22, and Cyrus Schenk,26, moved into the apartment this week, and for the next six months their rent will total just $6 each. That’s all thanks to Rupert Hunt,founder of SpareRoom, a company that allows users to post ads online looking for roommates and for a site to live. Hoping to compete with Craigslist for apartment listings, or SpareRoom moderates ads and profiles to weed out scams and allows users to pay a small fee to display their ads more prominently or secure the first dibs on rooms posted on the site.[br] Related: Co-living – the companies reinventing the idea of roommates Related: Can't afford an NYU dorm? School to offer 'Grandma's spare room' instead Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com