Many students, who already know which city they will go to at the start of the school year, hope to find accommodation before going on vacation. An obstacle course, as the market is so tense.
The summer break has not even started yet and students are already preparing for their return to school with a particular anxiety: finding accommodation for the start of the school year. In a previous article, BFM Immo reported that the housing crisis was getting worse from year to year for students. This year, they will experience a drop in rental supply of 7%, which is in addition to the 14% drop of the previous year. A particularly marked erosion since 2022.
Don’t panic though, a few tips can help.
• If possible, focus on cities where tension is lower
Demand is increasing in most major cities, reminds PAP. And the most affordable municipalities are, unsurprisingly, the most popular. Le Mans, Reims, Limoges, Toulouse and Le Havre, which all have in common the fact that they offer rents below 20 euros per square meter and therefore studios at less than 500 euros per month, are recording the strongest increases in demand at the beginning of June with respectively +22.8% of searches (for furnished studios, compared to the same period last year), +16%, +11.4%, +8.4% and +7.5%. On the other hand, PAP notes a drop in demand in metropolises such as Lyon (-3.3%), Marseille (-1.6%) and Nice (-0.4%).
Between the Olympics and high prices, many municipalities in Île-de-France, particularly the most expensive, are starting the month of June with demand down compared to last year. If demand increases in Meaux (+12.1%), Montreuil (+9.9%) or even Aulnay-sous-Bois (+8.7%), it falls in Ivry-sur-Seine (-11 .3%), in Clichy (-10.2%), in Vitry-sur-Seine (-10.1%), in Nanterre (-9.8%), in Courbevoie (-9.1%) or still in Paris (-8.4%).
• Request assistance
The National Information Office on Education and Professions reminds that there is financial aid. “Most often, the student is entitled to ALS (social housing allowance) or APL (personalized housing assistance)”, specifies the office which adds: “Students cannot provide a rental deposit to the owner due to their family or personal situation can benefit from the Visale student rental deposit. The State acts as guarantor. The Loca-pass advance is a 0% interest loan that can be used to finance the security deposit required by the owner. It is repayable over a maximum of 3 years and can be combined with the Loca-pass guarantee, which is a deposit in the event of unpaid rent to the lessor. Scholarship students and/or employees can apply to an organization Housing action“.
• Go through several sites
There are several sites to find accommodation. Obviously the classics like Seloger, Leboncoin or even PAP. But also specialists like Immojeune or Locservice. For the latter, it is the tenant who meets his criteria and who will be contacted by the owner.
• Look at the residences
The website aide-sociale.fr lists the different solutions for students. Obviously, Crous is one of them. If on the Crous website, it is still possible to register, the aide-sociale.fr website specifies that the steps can be taken from March. There may not be many places left.
Aide-sociale.fr then suggests going through Lokaviz. This site, created by the Crous, “in the form of classified ads, allows young people to find student accommodation with a private individual. Registration on Lokaviz is only done via the MyStudentServices Portal. In fact, from the moment you can enter an INE number (National Student Identification), you automatically have access to the Lokaviz site, as well as to the contact details of the various lessors.”
It is also possible to access places in university residences in the private sector. For this, there is the association for the economic development of student housing or even sites like Nexity Studea or fac-habitat.
• Do not forget homes and solidarity
There are different solutions for smaller budgets. Thus, it is possible to call on KAPS, Kolocation for solidarity projects, owned by the Association of the Student Foundation for the City (AFEV). “Founded in 2010, it is a low-rent shared accommodation system for young people (3 to 6 bedroom apartments) who in return undertake to carry out actions in the life of the neighborhood (educational support, improvement of living environment, entertainment for the residents of the neighborhood…)”.
Students can also apply for a place in a Foyer des Jeunes Travailleurs and in student houses run by associations via the National Union of Student Houses. And finally, Cohabilis offers to put young people in touch with older people in order to create intergenerational shared accommodation.
• Think about roommate
The average rental tension is 7 applications per room in France, according to Oqoro specialist in rental management. Here again, there are large disparities depending on the city. Thus, Paris comes at the top of the cities where the tension is the highest with 14 applications received per room offered in shared accommodation.
On average, cities like Lyon, Bordeaux and Nice still register more than 10 candidates for the same available room. To see the tension drop, you have to bet on Rouen and Orléans (3 files for a room), Clermont-Ferrand (4 files for a room) and Saint-Etienne (5 files for a room).
• Responsive, flexible… Tips for obtaining a lease
Alexandre Ducoeur, co-founder of Studapart, book for BFM Immo some advice for students.
1/ Be responsive: new announcements, responses to owners…
Look through classified ads, search on real estate listing sites, talk to your friends and family… Any method is good for finding an apartment quickly.
You must be able to be responsive and respond quickly to different messages. You can also create alerts with your different criteria and when an accommodation matches, you will be alerted by email.
Being on site will also save you time, allowing you to be available straight away for a visit.
2/ Prepare your application before the visits
In addition to the elements requested in terms of supporting documents (identity card, salary slips, guarantors, etc.), rental companies attach importance to the quality of presentation of your search: the reasons for the search, your planned rental duration , if you have already successfully made rentals. You can also present rent receipts from your previous accommodation if you were a tenant.
Don’t forget to promote the selected property by emphasizing that it meets your criteria and your expectations: “the equipped kitchen seems perfect to me, the location is ideal”.
3/ Be flexible
The rental market in big cities is booming, it is sometimes difficult to obtain accommodation that 100% matches your criteria the first time. Prioritize the essentials and forget about optional criteria so you can decide quickly. Responsiveness is key.
For his part, Mathieu Giard, spokesperson for Flatlooker, specifies that it is important to add a description to the file, “it makes it more personal, allows the owner to project himself, allows a better understanding of the rental project (e.g. : of a student who wants to live right next to his school”. And he adds: “Real estate is an area where there are relationships, if many files are solvent it is the small details that make the difference” .