Valencia - finding and changing accommodation

During my year in Valencia, I changed apartment twice. I wasn't the first person this happened to and I also wasn't the only person who had difficulties in their accommodation. To help you avoid this, here are my tips for finding an apartment.

There are a lot of websites that help Erasmus students find accommodation. I found my first apartment on a Facebook group. There are actually lots of Facebook groups for Erasmus students. It doesn't really matter where you look, sooner or later you'll find an apartment as there a lot in Valencia. If you look at the right time - I looked in April and moved to Valencia in September - then things move quickly. The disadvantages of looking before you move are obviously that you don't get to know your flatmates beforehand and you also only see pictures of the apartment. I met some students in Valencia who stayed in hostels or AirBnb for their first few weeks in Valencia and looked for permanent accommodation during that time.

I changed my apartment twice during my exchange semester and the process was always quick - normally I had a new room in a flat within a week of viewing the flat. I found them both online, looked for flats in English and Spanish and found lots of different advertising websites.

I lived in three different apartments. I had to change apartment twice and I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Here are my two top tips based on my bitter experience:

1) My second apartment was a newly formed flat-share. We signed the contract for almost a whole year (from October 2015 to the end of August 2016). But I had such bad luck with this landlord than my two friends and I moved out after six months (thankfully, Spanish law allows you to terminate contract after six months). I did lose my deposit (300€ = two months rent) because we didn't stay in the contract. In brief, we left the flat because our landlord was a total nightmare (I really hope that I never have anything to do with this type of person ever again). For this reason, I would encourage you to look for a room in an already established Erasmus WG where it is normal for people to come and go all the time. Landlords who regularly rent to Erasmus students are used to this and (/probably/hopefully) you won't have as many problems .

2) Of course, sometimes there are problems between flatmates. I learned this in my first flat-share. For this reason, my second tip is to not only focus on the apartment and the price, but rather the people who live in the flat-share and also their lifestyle (if you can visit the apartment before you move in). There will always be fights about cleanliness and parties when people want quiet. It is best if you understand people and can live with a flat that isn't perfect...it's only for a few months after all.