Once
you arrive, it is common to stay at a public school residence or a
private residence, where you don't have to worry about paying
utilities or taxes or any other bills that come with the housing.
After
you've finished the first year of studies (i.e. Learning french) or
your time at the residence, you may need to move out the residence
for several reasons (privacy, space and even costs) believe it or
not, residence out of the « CROUS » system (you need to
be enrolled at a public school to be able to apply to CROUS) are very
pricey.
Here
are some key points you need to take in count before start
researching for a flat :
1. It
is better to look in « landlord to renter » pages than
thru agencies. The real estate agencies will demand you a very
complete « dossier » including a French guarantor that
you may not have handy (The french guarantor should earn at least 3
times the amount of your rent) besides this inconvenient, or in case
you have a french guarantor you may still want to avoid agencies,
because of the price. They charge you more than one month of rent for
their services (Money that you'll never get back) plus the safety
deposit and the first month of rent. All together it might come
across as the equivalent of 4 to 5 months of rent due before you can
get the keys.
2. Weather you decide to go thru with an agency of directly with a landlord, you may still need to provide, copy of your passport and « carte de sejour » if you have it. A « quittance de loyer » meaning a certificate from the residence or your prior housing saying that you left the place (or the date you' ll leave). Also you may need bank statements showing that you have enough monthly income (from your international bank account/your parents/ or whatever money source you have) to pay the rent and last but not least a guarantor. In this case you can negotiate with the landlord and see if they may accept your parents (from abroad) as guarantors. You will need to show your parents bank statements and have them sign the « lettre de porte garant ».
3. If
you want to look up for apartments rented by landlords you may want
to visit : www.pap.fr,
www.vivastreet.fr,
www.paruvendu.fr,
www.leboncoin.fr,
among other sites.
4. In
case you cannot afford or don't want an apartment for your own, you
can find yourself a « collocation » which is very common
in France. You can visit www.collocation.fr.
Create your profile and start browsing.
TIP: For
all apartments may they be thru an agency or direct you will need to
give a « caution » or deposit of one or two months
depending if the flat is furnished or not. This come as a bad news
for people on a budget since is not easy to give all that amount of
money at the beginning (Even knowing that you will get it back once
you leave) There are two things that you can do if you do not have
that money. You can go to www.locapass.fr
and click on the « caution et garant » link or you can go
to your bank, explain to your counselor your situation and as a
student you can get affordable loans up to 3000 euros with 0%
interest.
TIP 2: Usually the landlords schedule one appointment only to show the property to all the people so you better go prepared with your "dossier" complete to have a chance. It is common here that if you like the place, you stay until other visitors start leaving and you can approach the landlord. Introduce yourself and hand in your file. Be insistent on how badly you want the place without over doing it or looking needy. Frenchies are picky. Play it safe and cool.
T-
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