How not to get crazy when looking for an apartment in Paris - and some tips learnt the hard way!

One of the most character-building experiences of my Erasmus year, and arguably a more useful life lesson than hours spent on books was my flat-hunting experience in Paris and trying not to get crazy while doing it.

I moved to Paris for an Erasmus at “La Sorbonne Nouvelle” in September 2014, and I’d like to specify that I had already rented flats for the previous two years in England, so I thought that I'd be scam-proofed and well mentally prepared for it. Oh boy, I was wrong.

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First of all, I hadn't set foot in the French capital yet that I'd already made a rookie mistake: the month. As we all know, September is the month when people restart their activities after the summer break: school, work, university and so on. That means that it’s also the month when the majority of people go to a new city and look for a new house- which leads to my first advice:

1. Go to Paris absolutely before the start of September

By this I don’t mean being there six months before the semester starts, but to be safe I would advise going at least one and a half month before. If your semester starts in September like in my case try coming during the summer, start of August at latest: the city is of course full of tourists (when is it not though, we are talking about Paris) but there are less students in search of a long-term accomodation.

Now, let’s imagine you come from America, or Russia, and you don’t want to come all the way to Paris months in advance only for an apartment. That’s totally reasonable. What it is not reasonable in Paris (nor anywhere else, in my opinion) is to look for an apartment online and (even worse! ) to secure it by paying the first installment. I'm not talking from personal experience here but here's the story of one of one of my fellow classmates from England: She had exactly this thought and started looking for an apartment online from England on pretty reliable websites. She found one flat that looked reasonably good and got in contact with the owner of the place. He sent her some more pictures, which she liked, and after agreeing on the price, she signed an online contract and paid 6 months rent in advance. He told her he would give her the keys once she'd be in Paris. Some months after she finally arrived in Paris, but when she went to the address stated on the contract she found herself in front of a dusty laundry shop. Useless to say, the guy never answered back to her call or messages. So, advice n. 2:

2. Never ever sign contracts, rent, or worse pay for an accomodation before seeing it.

As the advice states, this rule applies also if you are living in the city and you know that the apartment exists: what you don't know are the conditions it is in. Many times pictures can be totally fake, or photoshopped, or just not showing the real state of the place. So make the effort of going to check it out before signing anything. It's worth it.

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3. Be prepared to pay a lot for a very little space

This is another advice which is valid for any capital in the world and surely not only for Paris. I have to say though that in my experience rents in Paris are particularly expensive, with an average of 550-600 euros for a room. As the demand is so high, many people take advantage of it and can easily ask you to pay 400 for a couch in the living room. Let alone people who offer to share the room and the bed. Luckily there are some ways around it, but the advice n. 1 always needs to be followed, that is, come in advance. Some universities offer students flats for a reasonable price. My advice on the matter is:

4. If the university offers student accomodations, consider applying for one

I stupidly decided not to worry about my accomodation until the very last month, so I didn't even read the email sent me by the Sorbonne in early February asking if I was interested in one. If only I had known how hard the flat-hunting would be, I would have been the first one on the line. It's quite telling that the accomodation offered by the University was sold out in less than two weeks.

The advantage of students flats does not only consist in avoiding the flat hunt, but also living with fellow students and on a quite reasonable price. If you don't want to be surrounded by other students, you can also look for places in convents. It is a drastic alternative as rules there can be pretty though: curfew times, no guests allowed, prayer hour in the morning. The advantages are central positions and very competitive rates, therefore places there run out very quick too.

As I said earlier, I arrived in September, mid-September to be precise, so obviously students flats were full from March and so were the convents. After two weeks of stressing out and running up and down the Seine with an average of 8 viewings per day, I eventually found a room with a family in the 19th Arrondissment for 'only' 400 per month. It turned out to be great, as I could speak French all day with the parents and kids and the mum liked me so started baking lots of cakes for me. If you don't mind not living with your friends, I think guest families are a good and less expensive option. Last advice?

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5. Eventually, you’ll find it. So don't get discouraged!

It most probably won’t be on the banks of Canal Saint Martin, nor with that beautiful view on the Seine that you have always dreamt of: it's likely that it'll be a room in a grey building somewhere in an unglamorous district. But it will be a house. And, after all, it will be in Paris. So from that moment you will be able to actually enjoy all the amazing stuff that la Ville Lumière offers and who knows, in a little while you would also be able to start calling yourself a 'Parisien'.

I hope this article will help you a little, and if you are in the process of flat hunting, don't give up, you'll get there!

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