Renting an Apartment in Paris
You’ll need a place to live in Paris, of course. There are several options for apartment living in Paris, which vary in cost and level of complexity. If you want the cheapest and easiest, work your network and search for a friend of a friend or someone seeking a roommate. If you’re striking out alone, here are your options.
Home Swaps
You could find a place on a home swap site. This is the service that was featured in the film, “The Holiday,” where Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz switch homes and start new lives and romances. While this is the cheapest way to find an apartment in Paris, there a couple of challenges with home exchanges. First of all, people are looking to swap for places they want to go, which in the U.S. usually means New York City, or occasionally Los Angeles or Florida. (Sorry Peoria and everyplace else). Secondly, you’re subject to someone else’s schedule, if they’re only looking to exchange for a week in summer, for example. It’s difficult to plan for someone’s dates to match up with yours, which is why home swaps are usually very short term.
Unfurnished Apartments
Although the rent is cheaper than on a vacation rental, there are many reasons that I don’t recommend renting an unfurnished apartment if you plan on living in Paris for a year (or a couple of years) or less. For starters, the financial guarantees required to rent an apartment in Paris are quite high. Landlords in Paris require a France-based income of 3-4 times the monthly rent, 2-3 months’ rent up front for a security deposit, and either a French tax-paying guarantor who agrees to pay your rent if you fail to, or at least 6 months of rent to be held as a bank guarantee in case you break the lease. You’ll also need receipts for 3 months of prior rent in France and a French bank account.
There’s also intense competition for affordable apartments in Paris. By the time you see an ad for a place in the newspaper or online, 20 other people who want the same apartment have seen the ad too and will be competing with you for it – which leads me to another issue. Choosing a tenant is much more subjective in Paris than in the U.S. Even if a potential tenant passes the financial test and has a check in hand, a landlord will rent to a friend of a friend over a complete stranger, or they might turn someone down because they didn’t like the way the person looked or how they were dressed. Some landlords don’t want to rent to foreigners. This seemingly arbitrary screening process is typical of the way things are done in France.
Lastly, it’s important to know that the apartments in Paris often do not come with appliances — that means no stove or refrigerator. If you aren’t permanently moving to Paris and can’t afford to invest in setting up a household from scratch, I’d strongly advice against renting an unfurnished apartment in Paris.
Long Term Vacation Rentals
Vacation rentals were designed for tourists who want to get out of hotels and experience Parisian living, and this is the option I recommend for those who want to live in Paris for a year or so (or less). These apartments are furnished and are either owned by an agency or under contract with a landlord for whom they rent out the apartment. You can search through listings on an agency’s site, or in some cases, you can contact them with your requests and let them find an apartment on their books that meets your criteria. The security deposit is month’s rent or more, and if it’s a contracted apartment, there is usually an agency fee of up to a one month’s rent. The monthly rent on a vacation rental will definitely be higher than on an unfurnished apartment (by several hundred euros), but that’s the price you pay for having someone help you find the apartment and work things out in French with the landlord on your behalf, for being able to move into a fully furnished apartment with utilities included and already connected, and for having someone to advocate for you to resolve any tenant issues that arise. That’s money well spent for the privilege of living in Paris, if you ask me.
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Tags: Paris Apartments
