rugbymatt

Right, this ain't for me but for a seriously stressed out friend, they are looking for a rental in Paris, they have a job there starting BLOODY soon, its been a dream of theirs to move there for years and the lack of accommodation is driving her nuts and seriously endangering her dream.

I have tried Gumtree and their affiliate Kijiji and NOTHING!

So I put it to you guys, any ideas?

She is a seriously lovely girl and speaks fluent French...

val50

Hi Matt,
Gavin would help I'm sure - Herman is also someone who could perhaps help. Both live in Paris. Might be worth sending them a pm?
What part of Paris is she looking at living in, that would narrow it down a bit.
Has she looked at the notaires website - they do rentals as well as sales

http://www.paris.notaires.fr/

good luck

rugbymatt

Cheers hun, just emailed her to ask.

rugbymatt

If ANYONE knows what this means then good luck!

"9th, 10th and 18th arrondissements. Or 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th!!!"

Tweedpipe

Here's a brief description of the 20 Paris arrondissements or municipal boroughs.
http://www.paris-tourist-information...issements.html

Ka Ora!

Someone will post about them, But some are to be avoided. Not so nice places to live, I forget which ones though myself


Gavin and herman are there now, DMU used to live that way so she knows a fair bit about there as well.

dmu

1er to 6ème = the core of Paris, surrounding the Ile de la Cité (Notre Dame), all nice to live in but expensive (maybe the 3ème marginally cheaper)
9ème, cheaper, but less attractive. Not sure why it's grouped with the 10ème and 18ème, which are to be avoided like the plague.
Also to be avoided are the 19ème and 20ème.
Most expensive - 7ème, 8ème, 16ème.
My daughter lives in the 11ème and sister-in-law used to live in the 15ème, both residential, relatively quiet, with little shops everywhere. A village atmosphere...
Good luck!

rugbymatt

Just a quick bump, she is panicking a bit, she arrives in Paris in less than 3 weeks!

Does anyone know any websites that might hold listings or anything?

Tweedpipe

Afraid I can't help with any listings, but I really can't see the need for any panicking.
We moved umpteen times to at least 9 different countries and never had any permanent accommodation prior to arrival.
Invariably we booked into a relatively inexpensive hotel not too far from my planned workplace. My wife checked out agencies during the week, or we did agencies together all day Sat (and all day Sun in Asia). In one country it took us 7 weeks to find suitable accommodation (by which time all our personal effects had arrived and put in local storage), and that extensive hotel sejour was a bit of a pain, but all worked out well eventually. Incidentally we moved twice to Paris, once close to Orly, and years later close to CDG. Both times finding accommodation after arrival was relatively straight forward.
So as your friend didn't have the opportunity to take a short break in Paris earlier in order to sort out accommodation - either by unforseen circumstances or bad planning - they have the option of finding something rapidly on arrival - and perhaps regretting the location afterwards, or taking their time in order to find the right accommodation.
One things for sure, it will be a great experience for the next time they have to move.

rugbymatt

She is 20.

busby

There are loads of places to rent on "Leboncoin." Brilliant site.

Cleri

Mattie,get in touch with G-J-B...on here,or thru' me on FB.

G-J-B

Paris is damn expensive - we had friends over yesterday looking to move back to the city, and they were looking at the east suburbs close to the city, but didn't like any of them. They had hoped the prices would be considerably cheaper over in the east but there wasn't a huge difference.
If she's looking to live in Paris as opposed to a suburb, you can't go horrendously wrong with any of the arrondissements - all are pretty clean and safe these days (might have been a different story 10 or 20 years ago). Even if she gets something very temporarily, she could always move again to find somewhere to suit. The best deals come via word of mouth and usually involve paying the landlord/lady in cash, on the black.
I'm afraid I'm a bit useless when it comes to recommendations, because I've never looked for a place to live here, and if I take a gander at property it's just through the windows of one of the many immobiliers. If I was searching from the UK I'd most likely do a French google search followed by the number of the district I was interested in the most:

http://www.google.fr/#hl=fr&q=immobi...1c7fce320c0f35

This will give an idea of prices per district:
http://www.parisimo.com/en/parisInfo.php

Then just search the immobiliers. Most of them let you search by district. For example:
http://www.lodgis.com/fr/paris/

Failing that, check out craiglist and you might find a bargain:

http://paris.fr.craigslist.org/

dmu

Has your friend found anywhere yet? If not, as another poster suggested, she should find a cheap hotel near her work at the beginning and look for an appart. on the spot.
Just one point, as she will only just be starting a job (well done, by the way!), all the immobilières will probably want a Guarantor to guarantee payment of the rent (usually the parents), so she must be prepared for all the extra paperwork.
Has she thought of flat-sharing? "Colocation" has become popular in Paris and she may find a room that way. She should google "colocation Paris" for the websites, but be aware that there'll be competition from students who haven't found accommodation yet...

G-J-B

I have a friend who has a friend who is trying to rent their studio apartment in the 18th. The details are:

Le studio comprend:

* entrée
* salle d'eau spacieuse avec fenêtre (verre dépoli), douche, lavabo, WC, branchement et emplacement pour machine à laver
* pièce principale avec coin cuisine (évier, 2 plaques électriques, frigo et 2 placards) et 3 fenêtres.

Chauffage électrique, interphone.

530€ charges comprises (ne comprend pas l'électricité)

Caution : 500€

Frais d'agence : 500€

I'm afraid I don't know if it is still available, but if you thought it were of interest I can always ask them.