Rental Properties in Victoria - Australia

I began looking at domain.com.au as well as gumtree.com.au trying to find roommate to share a place with or even one bedroom apartments that I could handle on my own. Let me tell you renting in Australia is a complete nightmare! It is a very competitive market in Melbourne and generally hard to come by for American tourists. After going on what seemed like a million housing inspections and having no luck, I came across a website called www.flatmatefinders.com.au. This is a website that offers a place for people who are looking for a place to get matched up with people looking to gain another roommate or two. It doesn't cost anything to get signed up, however if you are successfuly matched with a property/flatmate they do ask for a $20 payment. I signed up and created a profile stating the area I was looking to rent in, my price range, a little bit about myself and when I wanted to move in - within hours I had already received 3 or 4 emails with interested. I emailed back and forth with a few people and two days after joining met up with 2 girls from NZ for coffee to see the place and get to know eachother a little bit better. It all worked out great and I couldn't be happier with the outcome.

I enjoyed my experience with flatmatefinders so much better than Gumtree because I had confidence that these people were real and actually interested in finding a roommate. I should mention that in order for people to post properties on this site they automatically get charged a $25 fee - so for me that meant that they must really be interested in finding someone soon and not just a bunch of creeps looking to scam you. Plus if you are just coming to Oz on a 12 month visa it is so great to move into a place that is already fully or at least partially furnished!

So if you are looking for a place and are interested in roommates I highly suggest Flatmat Finders!