Finding an apartment to rent in the Paris area can turn in a real nightmare whether you are a student or already in the working life. To help you in the quest for the rare gem, here are a few tips and tricks!
In the Paris area, like in many cities in France, searching for an apartment or a condo is an ordeal given the market prices. A lot of owners and agencies request to earn at least three times the price of the rent per month. A salary a lot of people do not have as rent is the biggest expense to live. But even when being a student or a young worker, you can find an apartment to rent in Paris and Île-de-France, through conducting researches and showing persistence, and a bit of luck still. Here are a few tips and tricks to make your research easier!
- Have a renting file ready ahead of time so you can immediately send it over and be granted priority.
- Be very quick to respond! No sooner had an ad be published, it generates lots of responses, and you have to make sure you are in the first responders to enjoy a quick tour. Prefer calling rather than emailing, more direct, as a lot of realtors do not answer all their emails.
- Make yourself available at anytime of the day for a visit. Aim at one or two weeks of intense researches to be more effective. Visits often take place at the end of the day to be convenient for people working, but the earlier you come, the more chance you have to visit it first!
- Sign up on applications such as Jinka, SeLoger.com, Particulier à Particulier, Bien’Ici. We highly recommend Jinka listing all ads matching your criteria in real time, and sending you a notification when a new property is added. You can even create several researches to widen possibilities.
- Widen your research criteria. With a small budget, having the apartment of your dream on the first shot is almost impossible. You have to proceed to a few concessions and note the criteria you will not depart from.
- Search in the close suburbs. An apartment in Paris is a rare gem. For less expensive and often bigger, you can find some lovely options, near the metro or tramway. If you can live further, up to the RER, you can find even more affordable housings.
- Look at when the next metro stations will open – or public transportation – and where prices have not skyrocketed yet. For a few months, you are likely to struggle a bit with commute, but then, the more the city becomes attractive, the faster your will get to Paris.
- If you target one city or arrondissement in particular, go and hand your file over to realtors in person, for more closeness. You could be called in priority if there is an apartment suiting your criteria coming to the market!
- Ask for the Mobili-Pass aid if you are eligible and looking to move to a certain number of kilometers from your current location. It will allow you to be accompanied by a realtor for free to find your new home.
- If your guarantor is not enough, ask for the Visale guarantee! Often used by students, it can be granted to young workers and low incomes.
Please be careful about scams, as there are a lot of them in the Paris area. Even though you can find some real gems on websites such as Seloger.com, a lot of fake profiles lurk around. And they can be easily spotted, when you respond to their ad, they send a typical email saying your profile seems to match. They usually ask you to come and visit and sign the lease at the same time, a precursory symptom of a frau, as they also say they live far away and cannot travel twice.
Moreover, if you are required to pay a bail, make a bank transfer or give any advance or payment ahead of time: it is a fraud! This situation is rarer with realtors, these often involve faux private individuals posting ads. Work on the assumption that if the apartment is too perfect for such a small cost, there is something fishy going on!
