How to Find Housing in France: Expat Apartment Search
One of the first orders of business when moving to a new country is finding permanent accommodations. Whether your move is short-term or for the long haul, in a big city or in a smaller town, finding housing in France can be a real challenge. As first year master’s degree students, Maria and I aren’t total newbies to apartment hunting here in France, as we lived together in Troyes during our year with the Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF).
When Maria and I arrived in Reims in September 2020 for our master’s degrees, we knew that getting an apartment would be not only one of the most important tasks, but also the most challenging ones to complete! Read on to find out how we secured our apartment in Reims and get some insider tips on finding your own place when you move to France.
Initial Housing Search
Before we left the United States, it was important for us to do a bit of research about the different sectors in the city, take note of the general price points in these areas, and set our expectations about our future apartment. With an idea of places we’d like to live and our budget set, we could begin our apartment search in earnest.
First, we explored the possibility of finding housing before our arrival in France. In general, this is not an easy task to achieve as independent foreign students. However, some student residences like CROUS and MGEL, or platforms like Studapart, allow foreign students to secure accommodation from abroad.
Due to COVID-19, an exceptional amount of students chose to retain their student housing this year, meaning that there were little to no vacancies for incoming students like Maria and I! In the end, our attempts to find permanent accommodation before our arrival were unsuccessful, so we set our sights on an in-person apartment hunt.
Apartment Search in Reims
Upon arrival in Reims, we went straight to the Airbnb we had booked to stay in for a week. This gave us a bit of time to recuperate from the long trip and get to work finding an apartment for our time as master’s degree students in France.
We continued to keep our eye on housing availability in the CROUS and MGEL residences as well as on the Studapart listings. In addition, we doubled down on our efforts by using Leboncoin, a sort of French Craigslist. Because Leboncoin has the most listings for apartments and is generally one of the most direct ways of finding housing in France, we focused most of our energy there.
During our week in the Airbnb, we were calling, messaging, and emailing landlords nonstop. In all, we contacted around fifty landlords. Many of the calls and messages lead to nothing, a few lead to apartment visits, and thankfully, one led to a verbal rental agreement! On day six of seven in our Airbnb, we visited our apartment. The next day, we signed the lease and moved in! It was a whirlwind of a week, but we were glad to have found a place in a nice area, with enough space for the two of us, and even a washing machine!
Tips for Finding Housing in France
Set Alerts
Regardless of which platforms you decide to use to during your housing search, don’t forget to use the alert features. These alerts will let you know when an apartment that fits your criteria is listed. Being the first to call and set up a visit increases your chances of closing!
Make a Spreadsheet
Using a spreadsheet program like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel will help you to stay organized. You will likely be calling a lot of people and, in turn, getting many calls back from numbers that you don’t recognize. Knowing which landlord is contacting you as well as which apartments are still on the market or no longer available is a must!
Join Local Facebook Groups
Even if you’re not an avid Facebook user, joining city-specific groups, like Étudiants de Reims, and even housing-specific groups can be a key part of a successful search. Group members often list local places for rent and will even give advice about finding housing in the area.
Speak Your Best French
Maria and I often harp on this point, but we are firm believers that our French-speaking abilities have helped us in a multitude of ways during our time living in France. Make sure to perfect your French to the best of your ability before your arrival, and brush up on vocabulary related to the housing search.
We hope that hearing about our apartment search and getting a few pointers have helped you to understand what it’s like to find housing in France as a foreigner. If you have questions or want to know more, leave us a comment!
3 Comments
Maurice
Jalen and Maria,
Congrats on getting a cool apartment.
We have all heard the horror stories of American YouTubers on Talent Visas in France who simply CAN’T get an appartement because they are unable to furnish certain documents, like three recent paystubs. (Why would a newly arrived, self-employed person have 3 recent pay stubs from a French company? Go figure. Shaking my head on that one.)
Anyway, I’m hoping to do a lot of my prep through Campus France. Do you think having a student visa, getting my “bailleur” through GarantMe, and being enrolled at a university will make my “dossier” more attractive and ease my path to landing an apartment in France?
Maurice
Jalen & Maria
It’s true that the system isn’t set up for foreigners and can, therefore, be complicated.
It’s a good idea to use Campus France as a resource to prepare for your move.
In our experience, the two most important factors are speaking coherently in French and having a guarantor. Speaking good French is important as it allows you to effectively communicate and build a rapport with landlords during apartment visits. It also means that you can accurately describe your situation, leaving nothing to the imagination, and putting the landlords at ease. Having a guarantor like VISALE or GarantMe strengthens your dossier in the eyes of landlords in absence of a physical, French guarantor.
With patience and perseverance you should able to find housing.
Maurice
Thank you so much for the advice and the tips on successfully landing an apartment.
Looking forward to it.