I'm developing a birthday TL blog habit. I suppose I could hardly say so, since it's only the second time I do it, but I feel the situation I find myself in always calls for a blog.
So this year around I'm in Paris. Studying abroad and enjoying this awesome city.
Shout-outs and thank yous to all the cool people who responded to my "going to france" blog with useful advice and whatnot.
So far the experience has been awesome; can't complain. Except for one small detail.
I'm yet to find an apartment.
I've been in Paris for 3 weeks calling landlords, visiting places, and well... things get complicated when they ask for a 'garant' (I forget the term in English) as I'm a student studying abroad and they won't accept the bank doing it for me (why the fuck not? ㅠ_ㅠ). I was told the fact I was studying at Sciences Po should have made things a bit easier for me, so that's either bullshit or renting an apartment in Paris is just about the hardest task to be performed in France. Anyway, I'm in the process of asking a friend's wife to vouch for me and I'm sure things will turn alright, but I'd hope they'd be sooner rather than later.
During the past 3 and a half weeks I stayed at a Korean Hostel in Villejuif; place was called 남대문. It was amazing, and cheap, and if it they would let me use the kitchen and cook for myself I would honestly just live there. In the meantime I've been having lots of Korean food (which is awesome) and also drinking a lot of wine (You can get a decent bottle of wine at Carrefour for 3 euro--I love Paris)
But I also have withdrawals from Peruvian food or just making myself some grilled cheese.
I ended up leaving the Korean hostel yesterday and I'm crashing with a cool Canadian guy whom I met there. Shout-out to Brian, when you read this.
As far as my birthday goes: I do get a celebration pique-nique at Champs de Mars tonight and my friends are taking me clubbing tomorrow. So it won't be dull and depressing.
Oh well... I'll go back to calling landlords and hope for the best.
Can't wait to get my own place!
Edit: I was invited back to the [c]hostel[/c] guest housefor diner on Friday night. Apparently they're having 삼겹살, so I'll update with some pics of awesome Korean dinner at a table full of foreigners.
renting an apartment in Paris is just about the hardest task to be performed in France. Anyway, I'm in the process of asking a friend's wife to vouch for me and I'm sure things will turn alright, but I'd hope they'd be sooner rather than later.
Yep, it is very hard. You might want to ask advice to Science Po I guess, but your solution should work out :/ Have fun in Paris ! And happy birthday !
Finding an apartment is indeed one of the hardest thing to do. The landlords ask for ridiculous requirements and usually refuse public "garant" like locapass.
Like an apartment 1500€/month for a couple inside Paris, landlords can ask for 6000€/month of salary for the two person combined and a single "garant" (must be only one person) who earns the same amount...
Good luck in your quest, it will be really really difficult and really really expensive.
You'll need a 'garant' for pretty much all apartments unless you know the landlord... If you have any friends who make a good living and you're good enough friends that they can trust you, then you should ask them to do it. It doesn't cost them anything as long as you always pay your rent...
You mention locapass... some other groups/associations that I've heard help with these things are the Crous, CAF, and CILSE. You'll need to go to the CAF anyways once you've got an apt so you should check out their website.
How cheap are you willing to go? Because you could try for a 'chambre de bonne', which are the tiny rooms at the top of old Parisian buildings. Typically they're between 9-20m², and you'll have to share a bathroom most of the time, but you can get lucky sometimes. My first year as a student I found an amazing chambre de bonne in the 16th arrondissement which only cost me 450E/month. Had to share a bathroom with one other person, but a maid came by every two weeks (at no additional cost) and my room alone was 16m², which is more than enough considering I was only ever there to sleep... To find one of these I'd say your best bet is to go through all of the 'classes préparatoires' or schools in the neighborhood you'd like to live in and check their billboards. That's how I found mine... just walked in and found their billboard... often times it was just an add scribbled on a piece of paper in the corner. If you're rue des Saints-Pères you could check out Janson, Chaptal and Dauphine. Typically this type of accommodation will only require a 2month of rent deposit and a handshake; it's pretty straightforward.
If you really don't have a 'garant', and you're looking for an actual apartment, then you could try hestia.fr. All real estate agencies will require a garant, but hestia just puts you in touch with the owners and you might get lucky and fine one that doesn't really care. This is a hit or miss investment though, since you need to pay hestia before they put you in touch with any landlords, although they'll give you a list of potential apartments before you sign up of course.
One last thing: I'm not sure what you asked your bank for, but you can go around the whole 'garant' thing IF you have lots of cash in your account and you 'block' it. Ask your real estate agency if they'd accept a bank 'blocage' for a total of 6-10 months of rent. Basically the bank would be taking YOUR money and preventing you to access it for a year, and this contract states that if you didn't pay your landlord the bank would automatically send him his due. There are a number of downsides to this, besides the most obvious one (that you need to have so much cash piled up...) but if you have it and you're desperate you could give this a try.
Finding an apt in Paris is indeed one of the hardest things to do in France... but once you're settled down it'll all be worth it, don't worry. And Sciences Po's parties are pretty fun!
Hammy that is great insight, thank you for all the info.
I'm only lucking for a small studio, maybe 11 sqr meters and a kitchenette + lavabo inside. I don't mind sharing shower/toilet, as I did this @ the dorms in college with way more people anyway. I do have enough cash to be blocked for 10 months of rent (assuming I find a small studio between 500 and 550 euros per month) But does that mean that I need to have the money for rent on top of the 5k euro or so that would be blocked? Can't I just lock the amount of rent for 1 year and let them withdraw the money from that account as needed?
I'm hoping my friend's wife will be able to do the 'garant' thing for me, but yeah, that: "you must earn 3x as much as the 'loyer' law is bullshit.
I'm enjoying myself and not letting the apartment issue pull me down, but It'd be nice to have one already, haha. I'm sick of looking at seloger.com, I'm gonna get an appointment with the sciences-po housing department and try to figure something out with them, as well as hoping to find something on pap.fr. I'm generally trying to avoid things like hesia because of that upfront fee.
@ the person who suggested craigslist: I've heard it's mostly scams (I assume there are a bunch of legit ones, but there's better places to post their stuff anyway?)
Thank you all for the suggestions / birthday wishes. Will update with korean dinner pics soon ^^~ Currently using McDonald's internet. Gotta love being able to have flan and beer at McDonalds ㅋㅋ
Yes, unfortunately that's another downside. Your rent doesn't come out of the blocked money, you have to pay your rent every month, and the entire blocked sum is returned at the end of the contract. There's no way around that, since that's what the bank is getting out of this arrangement.
If you're okay with having a 10-16m² room, kitchinette, sink, and don't mind sharing a bathroom then you can find an arrangement that wouldn't require a co-signant. I'd really suggest doing as I did a few years back and going around billboards. It's really silly, but from what I've seen most of these chambres de bonnes are rented out by really oldschool Parisians who wouldn't even think to advertise online (amazing right?...). I've never seen that kind of accomodation advertised on seloger.com or anywhere else.
Grats on going to Paris and hope you enjoy the city! I just finished a master's program at Sciences Po this spring (I'm American, it was part of a dual-degree program with my graduate studies here). Finding an apartment is definitely hard and a lot of the other foreign students in my program took a few weeks as well, everyone found something in the end though! IIRC a lot of them actually used craigslist; I got lucky and a friend who had done the same program the year before me put me in touch with her landlord. I had a fairly spacious studio with a loft, bathroom, kitchen counter, etc, but it was a bit pricey (1100 euro/month + utilities), didn't need a garant or anything like that though. I lived in the Latin Quarter and a lot of my friends lived in the Marais, so we were all close to everything in Paris. It was a great experience and I miss it a lot, feel free to PM me if you have any questions about things to do (moreso from a tourist perspective since I'm not native French )
EPT
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