By now, especially if you’re a city-dweller in your 20s and 30s, you’ve probably noticed one of these posts going around social media. You’ve probably, in fact, seen at least three this week. You may have even posted one yourself. “Looking for someone to take over my room in Dalston for two weeks in late September!” they might begin, before reading something like “£850, bills not included!” The text usually overlays an image of the room in question, someone’s stuff stacked neatly around it. “Going to Ibiza/New York/Italy and looking for someone ASAP! No time wasters, plz! DM for more deets!”
Over the past couple of years, such posts have become more common and increasingly a subject of ridicule. As one meme on popular Instagram account @real_housewives_of_clapton reads: “Hi am looking for someone to rent my room for 8 hours while I go out for a bit of lunch and see an exhibition. Lovely house. All bills included.” The length of a “sublet” – a term that used to evoke a multiple-month stay, or someone taking over a room before the original tenant could escape the lease – appears to be getting shorter and shorter. In one recent post, someone was advertising a sublet on their student halls for nine days, presumably because they didn’t need to start university yet.
