Finding Housing

I used Idealista to find an apartment to rent. One feature I really like is the ability to write up a profile which is sent when inquiring on a listing. Other good features includes being able to annotate private notes on a listing, to hide a listing if it is not for you, and to create a custom search. The custom search has a map view, and you can draw a polygon to denote where you want to limit your search. Finally, you can enable notifications to alert you when their are new listing that meets your criteria.

Here is a sample listing, with the title redacted. It is a one-bedroom apartment roughly 645 square feet. The rent is 700€ and is asking for a 1 month deposit. It also clearly marked as a short-term rental — not all are denoted and you might not discover that until you read the description. Next things to look for is what is provided. This one has air conditioning but read it carefully, the air conditioning might only be in the bedroom. It comes with an equipped kitchen which means that it has the large appliances included.

When looking at rentals, you’ll quickly notice that the bedrooms and bathrooms seems to be disguised in T(n) typology number. Quickly it becomes easy to decipher:

• T0 is a studio
• T1 is a one-bedroom
• T1+1 is a one-bedroom with an additional room that could be used as a bedroom
• T2 is a two-bedroom, and so on

Energy Efficiency Rating. Sometimes you’ll see an Energy Efficiency Rating A-F and it really is like letter grades in school. A+ is the highest efficiency and F indicates it is inefficient.

Things to watch out for

1. Deposit. If the landlord is asking for many months of rent as a deposit or asks for a really large deposit, this may be a red flag.
2. Few photos. If a listing has few photos, this may be a red flag.
3. Water damage. When viewing a property, pay attention to the walls and ceilings to see if you can observe any current or past problems with water leaks.
4. Surroundings. Really take a look around the property to see what’s nearby. One property we looked at had a dump behind the place, a dirt parking lot on the side. Make sure you look at everything, come back at night and look around the neighborhood.

More Considerations

An update after living here for a few months.

1. Heat. Make sure you have a good heat solution. The insides of these buildings are cold! See Week 4 The Big Chill. Look at what rooms actually get heat.
2. Electricity. Energy efficient is important, look for C or better. But what you might not be able to determine is how likely you will be to trip the circuit. In our apartment we have the rule of three – only 3 appliances on at a time and if it is the washer, then only 1.
3. Exposure. Pay attention to which way your windows face. Will you ever really get the sun during winter, will you get too much sun during summer?
4. Windows. Notice there are no bug screens, but yet there are bugs. Think about how you might want to address that when you might want to have the windows open.
5. Moisture. Humidity level is really high, things stay damp for a long time. You want to make sure that there is a way for things to dry out. Think bathrooms, towels and laundry you are doing when the weather is not great.
6. Parking. If it is only street parking and it looks plentiful, it won’t be in the summer. You might have to part far from your place during summer and other seasonal events.
7. Storage. Have bikes, paddleboard? Where do you put them?