[lumieredusoleil]

Okay, so I am in desperate need of some sort of advice. My fiance (French citizen) and I have been in Paris for 3 weeks now, and have been in a hotel for... 3 weeks. We are finding it IMPOSSIBLE to rent an apartment.

My fiance has a work contract for 2 years. That alone seems to be a huge problem, as agencies and non-agencies alike all say, "We want someone for 3 years, sorry." His salary is great, no problems with that, but we're finding it so hard.

With agencies, they are asking that we block ridiculous sums of money to secure an apartment - ie we found an amazing apartment in Sceaux that we wanted, and the agency said, "Great, all is in order. Now, we need you to put 3 years' worth of rent into an account which will be frozen." That amount was 35,500 euros. I am NOT kidding - we couldnt believe it!!

So I need some advice - we can't go through agencies seemingly because for unfurnished apartments, they want a 3 year minimum commitment via work contract (despite the fact that we have two 'garants financiers') and for furnished, where the minimum commitment is 1 year, they're still asking for huge sums of money to be blocked in account, like 10,000 or 9,000 euros.

For pap.fr, they ALL want someone with a 3 year contract, no questions asked.

If anyone can give any advice or has even been in the same situation, I would be so grateful. It's getting exhausing and financially draining being in a hotel and we are getting desperate!!

Hope to hear from somebody with some fantastic loophole that will help us! lol

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bevdeforges]

Wish I could help, but I have never had to search for accommodation in France (thank goodness). I do know that the basic lease for an unfurnished property is 3 years and apparently the market is currently such that the landlords don't need to compromise or do much else to "attract" renters.

You might try checking FUSAC or the bulletin boards at the American Church to see if maybe you could snag a sub-let from an expat leaving town. Even if it was only for a year, you would at least develop a bit of payment history that you could use later on.
Cheers,
Bev

 

[lumieredusoleil]

You might try checking FUSAC or the bulletin boards at the American Church to see if maybe you could snag a sub-let from an expat leaving town. Even if it was only for a year, you would at least develop a bit of payment history that you could use later on.
Cheers,
Bev

Thanks Bev - had no idea about the American Church bulletin boards, so we might add that to our search list!

Lucky you for never having to search for accommodation!