Renting private sector housing

This option offers more independence and flexibility in the choice of location and type of housing and also allows the student to benefit, for example, from the activities and events taking place in the city center.

This solution is best adapted to students who are sufficiently independent and already socially well-integrated.

Housing is rented either directly from a private individual or through professional real estate agencies. If you rent housing through an agency, you should expect to pay a fee equivalent to a little less than one month's rent.

Housing can be rented furnished or unfurnished. In general it will be difficult, if not impossible, to find this type of housing before you get to France unless you already have a local contact. Once you have arrived, however, you can get help from your educational institution’s housing office or the offices serving international students that exist in many university towns.

You will usually have to sign a one-year rental agreement or lease; however, it is possible to move out before the end of the contract provided you give three months’ advance notice for an unfurnished rental unit or one month’s advance notice for a furnished unit.

The guarantor requirement is often a problem; in some cities or regions, institutions or local authorities have made special provisions to deal with it.