HOUSING
HOUSING
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It is your responsibility to arrange your living accommodations in France; however, the Commission is available to facilitate contacts whenever possible. Many Fulbright grantees find housing through friends and contacts at their home universities or host universities. We thus encourage you to pursue any serious leads that you may have for sublets or exchanges.
If you wait until you arrive in France to secure housing, we recommend that you compile a dossier, or at least come prepared with multiple photocopies of important documents (letter of introduction and/or invitation from your host institution, passport, and proof of financial stability, such as your grant/fellowship contract, doctoral contract from home institution, 3 recent pay stubs, etc.) to demonstrate to your future landlord your seriousness in searching for housing. Keep in mind that desired documentation will vary depending on from whom you are renting.
Be aware that landlords and rental agencies in France tend do much more thorough checks of potential tenants than in the US, as it is a very lengthy and costly process to evict tenants who have stopped paying rent.
Utilities
When renting an apartment, you should inquire whether your monthly rent covers such items as gas and central heating, garbage disposal, etc. (fees known as les charges). There may also be additional charges for building maintenance expenses and insurance.
Renter’s insurance and other fees
It is typical for agencies to charge the equivalent of one month’s rent “hors charges” for their services (“honoraires” or “frais d’agence”). Due to these fees, there is usually slightly less competition for apartments being rented through agencies. Be cautious - even when the listing claims that the owner is renting directly, an agency might be involved. Don’t assume that there are no “frais d’agence” unless it’s explicitly stated.
Home insurance (assurance habitation) is required by law for all renters. The policy includes legal liability coverage automatically - you will not need a separate policy. The policy could range from 150 euros to 450 euros for the year.
Some landlords or host institutions may also request that you have an “assurance pour responsabilité civile” or civil liability insurance. This insurance guarantees the repair of damages you, or your dependents, may cause to a third person. Your assurance habitation policy may provide limited coverage for civil liability. Please ask your insurance provider about civil liability coverage.
Purchase insurance
Your French bank likely sells insurance plans, so ask when you make an appointment to open an account. The same is true of student health plan providers (LMDE, HEYME…), for those grantees who are enrolled in degree programs. Otherwise, the following are major insurance companies in France, by way of example:
Axa www.axa.fr
MMA www.mma.fr
MAAF www.maaf.fr
MAIF www.maif.fr
MACIF www.macif.fr
GMF www.gmf.fr
Matmut www.matmut.fr
Deposit
The owner of the apartment will usually ask for at least 2 months' rent as a dépôt de garantie or security deposit. You should therefore be prepared to pay a sum of money equivalent to 3 months' rent before moving into an apartment.
Finding a "garant"
VISALE is a free service to help young people find housing more quickly, by acting as a "garant". It can be used by international residents aged between 18 and 30 with a valid visa. Click here for more information about the service.
Note: You must subscribe to VISALE before signing or renewing your lease
If you are planning to live in a CROUS building: CROUS has signed an agreement with VISALE. Under the agreement, international students may use VISALE as their security deposit when renting a room in a student residence managed by CROUS.
Alternative services:
- Garantme
- When renting through Studapart, there is a built-in "garant" system for renters
Resources on the CAF for students and ETAs
Students enrolled full-time in French universities and ETAs may be eligible for housing assistance to offset rent from the CAF (Caisse d'allocations familiales). There are English-language guides to filing an initial application, and step-by-step instructions according to type of housing obtained: https://www.caf.fr/nous-connaitre/francais-etranger. The link to file an application is here.
Rental Agreement
You should be certain that you understand the precise terms of your rental agreement. Some landlords tend to regard the security deposit as money that should automatically be retained by them at the expiration of the lease.
To protect your interests, you should insist upon a detailed inventory of the furnishings and condition of the apartment (état des lieux) at your arrival and departure. Both copies of this inventory (yours and the landlord’s) should note the approximate age and condition of each item, furnishing or appliance, as well as the state of the apartment itself (walls, floors, carpet, etc.) : any evidence of damage, stains, scratches, breakage must be recorded. Otherwise you may be held responsible for any pre-existing damage.
Make sure you are also aware of your landlord’s policy regarding any repairs that need to be made in the apartment during your stay (whether the damage was your responsibility or not).
According to French law, a full month’s rent is required for any portion of a month that a tenant occupies an apartment. Know that every renter has the right to ask for a receipt after each monthly rent payment (une quittance de loyer). Also, a landlord has the right to hold onto the security deposit for up to two months after your departure. Although this rarely happens, remember that they have the liberty to do so.
Some landlords may request that you pay several months’ rent in advance; however, we suggest that you remain wary of anyone that asks you to pay more than 3 months up front and to be wary of scams in general. One sure sign of a scam is being asked to wire a deposit via Western Union or mandat cash urgent. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is!
If you’re unsure about something there are services available to give you advice regarding housing and tenants’ rights. For example, the national network of public youth information centers receives students and other young people for free consultations. The map of centers is available here.
Other resources for housing
La Carte des Colocs : Check out this website if you wish to have a flatmate/housemate in France
Appartager : Check out this website if you're looking for a flatmate/housemate in France
Studapart : Renting an apartment in France
Universities also provide their own resources for housing if you are enrolled as a student there. Check out the website of your host institution. You can also visit the International Relations Office on campus to find more information on housing in your host city. Please find below some examples :
CY-Cergy Paris Université : The university has its own platform for housing in partnership with Studapart. If you're a student there, go check it out!
The list of other housing options is non-exhaustive. Please take a look at the other resources below!
Real Estate Terminology.pdfWelcome to France - Housing (4).pdfFeel free to download these two PDFs: "Real Estate Terminology" and "Resources to Find Housing".
You will find many links to resources that have been recommended by previous grantees in "Resources to find Housing"
Grantee quotes
"I used ParisAttitude.com to find a furnished apartment, and found the process to be easy."
- 2024/2025 Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair
"AirBnB can be a nice way to find housing short term, but Leboincon was a much better alternative. In Grenoble, there were many options for furnished appartments that came with utilities and wifi, and were less expensive and nicer than the AirBnB."
- 2024/2025 Fulbright Research Scholar
"American Church of Paris always has a board where people who are renting different spaces put it on there every week."
- 2024/2025 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant
"Make sure to check foyers (usually for people under 26) for housing, they typically have rooms for cheap available."
- 2024/2025 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant
"I found that getting housing before arriving was a lifesaver."
- 2023-2024 Fulbright Advanced Student
"For housing, if your school offers housing, it is a great help to get started until you have a bank account in France. Specifically for the Libourne assistant, the housing is nice."
- 2023-2024 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant based in Libourne
"For renters’ insurance, we used Luko (online) which was helpful, and allowed us to have our names on an official document (which then made us eligible to be able to get cell phone numbers in France)"
- 2023-2024 Fulbright Research Scholar
"I would highly recommend the foyer where I lived: Foyer Alma Bosquet (14 rue Pierre Villey, 75007 Paris, FRANCE). For any future female ETAs that are placed in Paris, I would genuinely look no further than this foyer. It is in the seventh arrondissement of Paris, very centrally located, the rent price is very fair and affordable compared to private renting, and I felt very safe the entire time. Additionally, it is a great way to make French friends and practice speaking French because it is mostly young French women who live here. Also, the foyer provides you with the closest doctors and any other facilities that you may need. Young women are constantly moving in and out of the foyer, and even when I randomly moved at the beginning of December, they had space for me."
- 2023-2024 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant
"I used a site called Chez Nestor (Joivy) that takes a big deposit (which is easy to get back) but rents rooms in shared apartments without needing payslips or a garant. I'd recommend using a service like this to future grantees to worry less about housing."
- 2023-2024 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant based in Lyon
"Before arriving in Lyon, I connected someone from Espace Ulysse (https://espace-ulys.universite-lyon.fr/) to help find an apartment and get settled. She forwarded us the flyer for our Lyon apartment."
- 2023-2024 Fulbright Research Scholar based in Lyon
"Se Loger, Le Bon Coin, Student Foyers Group Chats.This is how I found my apartment. I'm more than happy to send the TAPIF WhatsApp group chat link if need be. Often times, when people leave Paris, they post in the group chat to notify others that their apartment is available. It might be easier to find an apartment this way than through an agency or traditional methods."
- 2023-2024 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant
"Consider as much immersion as possible in your home environment! The levels of increasing immersion I find are living alone/with other foreigners, living with French roommates, living in a homestay with a family or people with whom you, have a lot of interaction. For students, however, the CROUS is definitely the best value if you are able to get a good room. Consider the CAF for student housing assistance. If done properly and on time for the CROUS it gets deducted from CROUS rent; if not, it's deposited at the end. If there are any issues call them; there are all sorts of website quirks such as maximums on household rent etc."
- 2023-2024 Fulbright Advanced Student
"I recommend learning how to put together a French-style dossier when searching for an apartment. Many landlords are resistant to reviewing documents (pay stubs, job contract, etc.) that differ from French templates. It helps to spell it all out to the landlord in the dossier and make sure each document is clearly explained."
- 2023-2024 Fulbright Advanced Student
"The housing agency I worked with was CITYA. The agent even worked extra time on the weekends to get all my stuff set up."
— 2020-2021 Fulbright Advanced Student in Bordeaux
“In talking with other current and past grantees, I learned that what many people did was find places listed on websites like Airbnb or Vrbo and then contact the host to see if they would be willing to go off-site and negotiate a lower price and do a leasing contract, which I previously had not thought of as a possiblity. In my experience, it was Airbnb and Vrbo hosts who were most willing to forego the materials that others requested and to rent to an American, particularly if it meant that their place would be rented in the off season. Had I known this tip earlier, it would have saved me a lot of time.”
— 2022-2023 Fulbright Advanced Student
"I'd recommend checking out Facebook pages related to your cities (i.e. "Moving to Aix-en-Provence"), as they often post sublet opportunities that are more flexible than standard apartment rentals."
— 2022-2023 Fulbright Advanced Student
For ETAs: "Start looking for housing early, and ask the previous assistant at your school what they did for housing. There is a possibility you can live where they lived! If you are not able to find housing before your arrival, I recommend finding a single longterm AirBnb for a month, as they are cheaper rates, and this gives you plenty of time to secure housing after your arrival. Most assistants figured they would find housing within 1-2 weeks and were unable to, so they ended up spending a lot more than necessary on AirBnbs. Do not stress too much, you will find something!"
— 2022-2023 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant
“Suggestion regarding housing: Be super careful about the apartments or houses you will rent, especially if they are furnished. The owners of rental properties in France expect the renter to clean the roof windows even they are not accessible, which will be a surprise to most Americans. They also expect the renters to keep up the furniture and the apartment (for example, they may change furniture if they see a tiny dent on it, using the rental deposit). This is very different from the normal practice in the USA.”
— 2022-2023 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant
"I would recommend living with roommates, unless you’re someone who really hates living with others. Starting the Fulbright can be awfully lonely, but roommates can alleviate some of the loneliness, and if you’re lucky enough to find French roommates, you will be fluent in no time (if you’re not already)."
— 2019-2020 Fulbright Advanced Student.
Check out Lauren's blog post for her thorough advice on finding housing in France, and her description of Lyon's best neighborhoods.
ETA's : “Contact your prof ref. ASAP and inquire if your placement has housing; if they don't, see if they can put you in contact with other schools that might have housing. It's possible to live in a school you don't work at.”
— 2022-2023 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant
“I recommend booking an Airbnb/hotel or planning to stay with a friend in France for the first week or two so that you can visit apartments upon your arrival in France. In order to find housing you should definitely begin the search in advance, but housing is much easier to find when you can be physically present to go on apartment visits and hear about apartments by word of mouth. This way you don't pay a deposit and get stuck somewhere you wouldn't like to live!”
— 2022-2023 Fulbright Advanced Student
"I would like to say that a rental agency in Nîmes called Morning Croissant was wonderful. Highly recommended!"
— 2019-2020 Fulbright Research Scholar"We used a free service from CCI Hauts-de-France that is set up specifically to help new residents (mostly business transfers) get established. Through my research host, we were assigned a Chargée d'accueil des expatriés who helped with nearly everything: liaising with the school to enroll my daughter in classes, helping us with insurance, reviewing rental agreements (and looking at rentals if we wanted, although we had friends help with that before we arrived), and helping translate with bank staff. Our contact’s English was excellent. The agency even hosted monthly events for expatriates to meet each other."
— 2019-2020 Fulbright-Hauts-de-France Research Scholar
"Finding housing in Paris is very difficult! It’s a good idea to start way in advance before the French university students get their apartments (early summer at the latest). It’s hard to get in touch with people while you’re in the US; I sent out tons of messages and didn’t get any replies until I got a French number and was able to call from France and meet up with landlords. I started in September, when everyone already had their student apartments and roommates. To give yourself a fighting chance, prepare a French housing dossier in advance with at least two guarantors and everything translated. Be very aggressive about calling people and asking for apartments in French. There were definitely people who tried to scam me by offering a rent price that was extraordinarily high for the apartment, so make sure you see a lot of apartments before choosing one. A chambre de bonne might seem nice for the price, but consider all the factors before going that route. I eventually found my apartment by asking people in the US who travel to Paris a lot if they had any friends with connections, etc. In the meantime, prepare for a possible long-term Airbnb. Also consider finding a host family or a roommate to share costs and get a nicer place."
— 2018-2019 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant"For those awardees that cannot afford to pay high rent in the Paris area, I strongly recommend to live in suburban areas such as Antony. I lived in an apartment just a few meters from the RER Antony, which was also close to the Université Paris-Sud in Chatenay-Malabry. A metro ride to central Paris would be less than 20 min, and the town of Antony is full of markets, small stores and all types of services."
— 2017-2018 Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair“For housing I really recommend using Lodgis as a service – it was a little expensive in the location I looked (the 5th arrondissement) but the service was great and financially it’s really secure, you pay online through a website to the company, never directly to the landlord. It was a really efficient process with minimal agency fees.”
— 2016-2017 Fulbright Advanced Student
“For an apartment, we found a long-term (8 month) rental through VRBO.com. Several renters had discounted rates for long-stays. We also found some long-stay options through AirBNB, but there seemed to be more available at VRBO.com.”
— 2016-2017 Fulbright-Nouvelle Aquitaine Research Scholar"I would highly recommend trying to find housing through Sabbatical Homes (sabbaticalhomes.com). These are furnished homes, often with electric/cable/wifi utilities already set up, which can save a lot of headaches."
— 2016-2017 Fulbright Advanced Student"I would really recommend the site www.locservice.fr to find housing. It requires a small fee to set up an account, but you can then upload your information and have landlords or potential roommates contact you directly with offers. Many landlords are reluctant to rent to foreigners, but with locservice.fr, the landlords have already seen your file and will only contact you if they would be willing to rent to you, so this saves a great deal of time."
— 2016-2017 Fulbright Advanced Student“In Grenoble, we got help from LC Mobility for finding an apartment, opening bank accounts, getting our public transportation cards, and other such things. They were VERY helpful. We recommend them.”
— 2014-2015 Fulbright Research Scholar“I found my housing through paris-colocations.com, and it was a great agency to help me find housing and roommates in Paris. I've really enjoyed living with French roommates; it has been an excellent way to learn about a new city, meet new people, and improve my French!”
— 2012-2013 Fulbright Advanced Student
"My biggest piece of advice would be to use the website and Facebook group for lacartedescolocs to find housing if you want to find roommates and/or live with French people. This site exists for most major cities in France. Going on apartment visits can also be a great way to make friends, even if you do not end up living in the apartment(s) that you visit!"
— 2021-2022 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant"What many people did was find places listed on websites like Airbnb or Vrbo and then contact the host to see if they would be willing to go off-site and negotiate a lower price and do a leasing contract, which I previously had not thought of as a possiblity. In my experience, it was Airbnb and Vrbo hosts who were most willing to forego the materials that others requested and to rent to an American, particularly if it meant that their place would be rented in the off season."
— 2022-2023 Fulbright Advanced Student"The Fondation des Etats Unis (FEU) was a great place to live, and a great community for me."
— 2022-2023 Fulbright Advanced Student
“Vide-greniers.org is great for finding massive yard-sale-type events to stock your household.”
— 2022-2023 Fulbright Research Scholar
“Housing -- Sign-up for listservs, such as H-NET -- Sign-up for university facebook housing groups, such as ENS or Sorbonne."
— 2022-2023 Fulbright Advanced Student
"Make sure you're familiar with French rental law and local government organizations like the ADIL that provide free consultations and help with landlords including form letters to get your deposit back.”
— 2022-2023 Fulbright Advanced Student
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