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How to Find an Apartment in France as an American

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Note from the editor: We are constantly asked by our readers: how to find an apartment in France as an American? In this guest post, TAIP has partnered with EasyFranceNow, a platform for Americans looking to relocate and build their life in France. Enjoy their very detailed breakdown below, and be sure to tell them TAIP sent you when you contact them for assistance! — MS

Key Takeaways

  • The file decides it, not the budget. French landlords select on the completeness of your rental dossier, not a US credit score or bank balance that they cannot verify.
  • Income must be shown in euros, monthly, and regular. Agencies want a stable monthly income of about three times the rent, in euros rather than dollar figures or assets.
  • The free state guarantor rarely fits Americans. Visale is built around French employment, so most Americans on a visitor or long-stay visa use a paid guarantor service or pay rent in advance.
  • Deposits are capped by law. The security deposit is one month of rent (excluding charges) for an unfurnished lease and two months for a furnished lease, per service-public.fr.
  • A state-labeled dossier helps. The free government tool DossierFacile builds a verified, watermarked rental file that French agencies recognize and trust.
  • Speed and silence are normal. Well-priced apartments in Paris, Lyon, and Bordeaux receive many complete files within hours, and agencies often go silent instead of sending a rejection.
  • Help is operational. A relocation team runs the French outreach, packages your dossier, and coordinates viewings, while final decisions rest with landlords and agencies.

What Finding an Apartment in France Actually Involves for an American

Finding an apartment in France as an American means assembling a French-readable rental file, proving regular income in euros, solving the guarantor question, and moving fast enough to win a place before a dozen other complete files do. Americans usually discover them one at a time, after the search has stalled.

In the United States, renting runs on a credit check and proof of employment. France works differently. There is no national tenant credit score to pull, so the agency reads a paper file, the dossier de location, and checks whether your income is regular and large enough relative to the rent. A one-time balance counts far less than a verifiable monthly income.

If you would rather handle everything yourself, our step-by-step playbook for renting in France as an American covers the do-it-yourself path in full. This article is about what changes when you bring in help.

Why the French Rental Market Treats American Applicants Differently

French agencies are cautious with American applicants because the usual reference points, a French employment contract, a French-paid salary, and a French guarantor, are often missing, and they must assess an unfamiliar income source quickly in a market where demand outstrips supply.

Most agencies stop reading an application the moment they cannot see a stable, euro-denominated income up front. A remote worker, a retiree on a US pension, or a freelancer invoicing American clients all have a good income. Still, the proof arrives in dollars on US statements that the agent cannot scan in ten seconds, and a file that takes effort to read loses to one that is instantly legible. Most agencies expect net monthly income of around three times the rent, including charges, though it varies by city and landlord.

The Dossier is the Product: What a France-Ready Application Looks Like

A France-ready rental dossier is one clearly ordered file proving your identity, your right to live in France, and your ability to pay the rent each month in euros. Submitting it as a single labeled PDF in the order the agency expects changes whether it gets read. The free government tool DossierFacile is built for exactly this: it assembles your documents into a verified, watermarked file that French landlords and agencies recognize, which removes the agent’s fear that the paperwork is incomplete. The core set most agencies ask for:

  • Identity: a valid passport, plus your long-stay visa or residence permit (the VLS-TS or carte de sejour).
  • Proof of income: recent pay slips, pension statements, or freelance invoices and bank statements, ideally with euro equivalents noted. A US employment letter stating monthly gross pay helps a remote worker.
  • Tax document: a recent US tax return, or a French avis d’imposition, once you have one.
  • Proof of current address: see our guide to what counts as proof of address in France when you are still in an Airbnb, because this trips up almost every new arrival.
  • Guarantee: evidence of your guarantor solution, whether a paid guarantor service certificate, proof of rent paid in advance, or a Visale visa if you qualify.

Convert your key income figures to euros on a cover sheet and state the exchange rate and date you used. You are doing the agent’s mental math for them, removing the friction that gets American files set aside.

Guarantor, Deposit, and Money Questions Americans Ask First

A guarantor (a garant) is a person or service that pays your rent if you cannot, and in a tight market, most agencies expect one even when the law does not. Visale is a free state guarantor from Action Logement, but most Americans on a visitor or long-stay visa do not qualify, because the scheme is built around French employment. A reform effective January 6, 2026 kept Visale free and broadened access for some older salaried workers, but it still centers on people with French job contracts. That leaves a few realistic paths, which we cover in our guide to renting in France with no French guarantor:

  • A paid guarantor service. Private companies act as your guarantor for a fee, typically 3.5 to 5 percent of the annual rent, so an apartment at 1,200 euros per month usually costs around 500 to 650 euros a year.
  • Paying several months of rent in advance. Some landlords accept this in place of a guarantor. It is negotiable.
  • Visale, if you genuinely qualify. Worth checking eligibility, especially if you are under 30 or starting a French employment contract.

The security deposit (the depot de garantie) is capped by law: one month of rent excluding charges for an unfurnished lease, two months for a furnished lease, according to service-public.fr. Protecting it starts on day one, which is why our guide to protecting your security deposit and the move-in inspection is worth reading before you sign. For a furnished apartment, budget day-one cash for the first month of rent, a deposit of up to two months, agency fees, a guarantor service, and renter’s insurance, which must be in hand at signing.

How We Help Americans Find an Apartment in France

At EasyFranceNow, we run the French side of the search for you: building a France-ready dossier, contacting agencies and landlords in French, coordinating viewings, and pushing each promising lead to a concrete next step. We are not a real estate agency and we do not sign leases on your behalf. We remove the friction that makes the search slow when you are doing it from another time zone, in a second language, against applicants who already know the rules.

The work breaks down into a clear sequence:

  • Translate your situation into a France-ready file. We turn your income, status, and timeline into a dossier that a French agency can approve at a glance, with income in euros and the guarantor question solved.
  • Run the French outreach. We contact agencies and landlords, write the messages that get responses, and handle follow-ups in French so leads do not go cold while you sleep.
  • Coordinate viewings. Whether you are on the ground or still in the US, we line up viewings and help you see places quickly.
  • Keep the process moving. We chase responses, push for file review and viewing slots, and keep you credible and fast when an agency engages.
  • Support the move-in. Once you secure a place, we sequence renter’s insurance, the inspection, and the first administrative steps after signing.

If you are already in France and the constraint is speed, our Housing Fast-Track service is built for exactly that, including moving from an Airbnb to a long-term lease. If you want a single point of contact coordinating housing alongside the rest of your move, our end-to-end relocation support covers the whole picture. We do this every week for Americans moving to France: a disciplined process, a coherent file, and consistent follow-up in French. Final decisions still rest with landlords and agencies, so no honest team guarantees a specific apartment.

A Realistic Timeline: From Search to Keys

A realistic search runs about two to six weeks of active searching once your dossier is ready, plus a short window for signing and move-in, and the biggest variable is whether your file is ready before you start. Well-priced apartments in Paris, Lyon, and Bordeaux receive dozens of complete files within hours, so silence usually means someone faster and more complete got there first. If you are arriving with temporary housing, plan the transition deliberately: our seven-day action plan for moving from an Airbnb to a long-term lease shows how to compress the search once you are on the ground.

Different American Profiles, Different Paths

The right strategy depends on which kind of American mover you are. Retirees should lead with pension and Social Security income as a regular euro-equivalent monthly figure rather than assets; our guide to retiring in France as an American covers how housing fits with visa, healthcare, and taxes. Remote workers have a strong income but an unfamiliar contract, so an employment letter, pay slips, and statements showing regular deposits make the case, while a paid guarantor service fills the gap left by Visale. Families face a tighter market for larger apartments and should anchor the search around schools and neighborhoods first; our overview of how to choose where to live in France as an American is a useful starting point. Students often qualify for Visale, and unmarried partners should expect each adult’s income and status to be assessed.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Most failed American searches fail for the same handful of reasons, and nearly all are avoidable:

  • Showing income only in dollars. The most common reason a file stalls is income shown only in dollars, on US statements, no one at the agency can read quickly. Convert to euros and label it clearly.
  • Leading with assets instead of monthly income. French agencies weigh regular monthly income far more heavily, so lead with it.
  • Assuming a US guarantor will work. A relative co-signing from the United States is almost never accepted.
  • Treating silence as a maybe. No response usually means the place is gone, so keep applying in parallel.
  • Sending a messy file. Loose photos and out-of-order documents get set aside. Submit one clean PDF or a DossierFacile link.
  • Paying before viewing. Never transfer money to reserve a place you have not seen. The Ministry of the Interior’s guidance on protecting your rental documents and avoiding scams is worth reading.

When to Get Help

You can handle the search yourself if you have time, some French, and a flexible move-in date, and our renting playbook is written for the do-it-yourself route. Help earns its cost when you are searching remotely and cannot attend viewings, when a short-term stay is running down, or when your income profile keeps getting your file set aside. In those cases, a bilingual team running the outreach and packaging the file is often the difference between weeks of silence and a signed lease.

Finding an apartment in France as an American comes down to one idea: the market selects on a clear, complete, euro-legible file that arrives fast. Solve the dossier, the income, and the guarantor question before you start, move quickly when a good place appears, and treat silence as a signal to keep applying, not a personal verdict.

If you would rather not do the French outreach and follow-up yourself, that is exactly the part we take off your plate. When you are ready, start with our Housing Fast-Track service if speed is the constraint, or our end-to-end relocation support to handle housing alongside everything else. Either way, you will not face the French rental market alone.

Photo by Emily Baruffaldi on Unsplash

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Finding an Apartment in Paris; It’s Not Them, It’s You. Tips to Secure Your Dream Digs

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You’ve dreamt about this day for way too long. You’ve resent your application via La Poste (twice), you’ve signed the textbook-thick lease, and you’ve finally been given the keys to your dream Parisian home.

You walk up the 5 (read American 6) flights of stairs with a grin from ear to ear because when you reach the top level and insert that irreplaceable key into that beautiful door, you KNOW, it was all worth it.

Now lets go back, about 3-6 months, cue rewind montage.

Your time is ending in your Airbnb that you had to rent to fulfill the visa application requirements. You’ve had a great time playing house and are looking forward to bringing your own place to life with your own essence. But, where do you start?

Some might think you started a few weeks before you even moved over! But things are a bit different in our dear Paris. You see, finding an apartment in Paris, as a foreigner, is like finding a dinosaur fossil at an archaeological site. Not impossible, but it’s going to take time and you’re gonna need a fine-tooth comb. Yes, laugh, it’s okay, you’ll need to laugh to survive through this. 

Start Your Search

You have several options. The most popular route is renting a furnished flat through an agency. This is also the most expensive option because the rentals are overpriced from average, the furnishings are usually comfortable, but sometimes unkempt, and the agency takes a comfortable commission. The pros are that all communication is in English, you can access an online catalog and view the apartments online, making it much more streamlined to choose a place and have a “home” before you even step out of the CDG airport. A big con is that you don’t actually see the flat, or even the area in person, and that could yield an unfavorable disposition. Once you’ve signed a rental agreement, it’s nearly iron-clad, so breaking it is not much of an option.

Now, if you know a few things or two and are comfortable with speaking French, you might try your hand at sourcing a place on your own through the French version of Craigslist, Le Bon Coin. Here you can not only find your next dream apartment, but also a bicycle, clothes, instruments; absolutely anything under the sun has been or could be sold on Le Bon Coin. As the adventurous writer of this piece, who did not know a few things, I decided I didn’t need an agency and tried going down the rabbit hole of apartments listed by locals. And may I say, what. a. journey.

The Dossier

There are many inner workings to locking in a place, much more than scheduling a visit and meeting the owner. You can’t get any traction forward without a dossier, your application packet, essentially. You’ll learn quickly in this new French life that your dossier will be an invaluable collection of paperwork that you’ll use for finding a home, a job, opening a bank account, and more. The French like everything on paper and it’s important that you look excellent on paper.

But your experience and income may not translate through the language barrier. And if you don’t speak French, it will be difficult to garner confidence and gain trust that you, a foreigner, will be a worthy tenant who will never falter in paying their rent. If you’re wondering, no, I did not speak French at the time. It was just me and my blind confidence leading the way.

Asking For Help

After several weeks licking my wounds, I accepted that I needed a professional’s assistance, but I could not stomach paying the exorbitant fees of housing agencies, so I found a middle ground. A property search agency, Chasse immobilière, for freelancers and foreigners works exclusively with local realtors that speak English and know how to prepare an application packet best suited for a freelancer, non-native speaker, non-French person, and every other outside of the box scenario. They go through their network,  Le Bon Coin listings, and different realtor agency listings from all around the city (or country if you’re looking outside of Paris). I was fortunate enough to connect with a local realtor who sent me so many listings, made appointments, handled all communications with the owners, and honestly took off all of the burden. I just had to click through the photos, say yes or no, and we’d meet to view the listing. Thanks to her, I found my absolute dream apartment. With the big Brown door, on the top floor, with the gold lock, the ancient elevator, and the most Parisian view. There is a fee for this service, but I felt better knowing part of it went directly into my realtor’s pocket.

There is no wrong way to look for a home in Paris, but there are many more efficient ways, and I can’t recommend enough to consider hiring an agency to help you with the search. Alternatively, I’d be happy to recommend my realtor, now turned dear friend, who knows Paris inside and out.

Whatever path you choose, rest assured that your dream maison is waiting for you. Your Parisian home is only just around the corner.

Photo by Brian Potter

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What No One Tells You About Finding an Apartment in Paris

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We often talk about the lengthy and sometimes complicated process of applying for a visa to live in France, what it’s like to move away from friends and family, and better ways to learn French. But, something we’ve discussed only a handful of times is perhaps one of the most important — and potentially most frustrating — parts of moving to France: finding an apartment in Paris.

The good news is that it’s not just you. Apartment hunting in Paris really is that hard. 

Thinking about all of this, a story comes to mind. Stephen and I have worked together on so many different things, from walking tours and picnics to Airbnb and beyond. One of those random projects and gigs included showing apartments in Paris together. He had some contacts with people who wanted someone trustworthy to actually show places to potential tenants and serve as an initial judge of whether said tenants would make a good fit.

He gave me RDV on rue Jacob in the 6th arrondissement — coincidentally right around the corner from where I lived as a student during my semester abroad and one of my favorite areas to walk around to this day. I was excited to go back to my old haunts and earn a little extra cash from helping him out.

I rounded the corner of the rue Bonaparte and saw a massive line of people, seemingly waiting to enter the Ladurée boutique. I kept walking towards the address I wrote down, and noticed that the line snaked up the street in the exact same direction I was going. Weird, I thought — but chalked it up to it being a busy part of town. Imagine my surprise when I saw the line of people waiting outside the address that Stephen told me to meet him at.

I skirted around them and headed up the stairs — I knocked on a door that was left slightly ajar and told Stephen about the line. He said he wasn’t surprised, there was a lot of interest. When all was said and done, we showed the place to more than 40 people.

So, why am I telling you this? Because this little walk down memory lane is a perfect example of how competitive the real estate market is in Paris, even for rentals. Now, that’s not to say it’s impossible. I’ve never been homeless in Paris, but I have had to shift my expectations since living there. 

And today, I’m sharing everything I’ve learned along the way so you don’t make the same mistakes I did.

Know What You’re Really Getting Into

As I’ve alluded to in the form of my story above, finding an apartment in Paris is nothing like what you may be used to in the US, or even elsewhere in Europe. Things move a lot more slowly, and it’s very competitive.

Many listings are already taken by the time you send your first message, and the best places are often only available if you know someone. You might tour an apartment, think it went great, and never hear from the landlord again (been there). As a note, French landlords can be extremely picky, especially with foreigners and expats. There’s a fear that you’ll just “leave the country” and never pay your rent. In a way, I get it.

Some also want proof that you already live in Paris and pay your current rent on time before they’ll rent to you. Like so many other French administrative processes (like getting a bank account or cell phone, though those are much easier nowadays), you basically need an apartment to get an apartment. 

Another big surprise? An unfurnished apartment likely won’t even have kitchen appliances (yes, not even a stove), and also means committing to a three-year lease, minimum. 

Decide Where (and How) You Want to Live

As we’ve noted in our Paris neighborhood guide series and in a recent YouTube episode, every arrondissement is different, boasting its own unique charm, vibe, lifestyle — and budget. So, before you really start your hunt, it’s important to have a general idea of where in the city you’d like to live and what kind of housing would work best for you.

Here are just some of the options:

  • With roommates (often called a ‘flatshare’ or colocation in French)
  • A small studio apartment (usually under 20m² or 215 square feet)
  • A chambre de bonne (tiny top-floor former maid’s quarters with shared bathrooms)
  • A traditional apartment (if you’ve got the budget/dossier for it)

You could also do what Stephen did for his most recent apartment. He couldn’t find anything, so he went to Airbnb to see if a host would be willing to rent to him more long-term. He met them for a coffee, talked things through, saw the apartment in person, and signed the lease. It’s an excellent example of how, sometimes, you need to be willing to be scrappy to snag the Parisian apartment of your dreams.

Now, as mentioned, finding an apartment in Paris isn’t always easy, so you also need to be prepared to take what you can get. I don’t mean you should settle for a shack in the middle of nowhere, but if you can’t find what you’re looking for in, say, the 5th arrondissement, be willing to look in, say, the 19th.

The All-Important Dossier

If you’ve managed to apply for and obtain a French visa, you already know the importance of paperwork in this country. France wants proof for everything — you can’t just show up for an apartment tour and say you’re a great tenant. They want to know your name, date of birth, occupation, how much you make, where you’ve lived in the past, and all of your deepest hopes and dreams. Okay, the last one is an exaggeration, but you get the gist.

In fact, most landlords or rental agencies will ask to see your dossier before they’re willing to even speak to you. At minimum, it should include:

  • A copy of your passport and visa
  • Proof of income (French pay stubs are strongest, or bank statements)
  • A work contract or school enrollment letter
  • Recent utility bills or proof of address
  • A French bank account to prove you have one
  • A ‘garanteur’ or someone who makes more money than you, who is willing to back you up, like a parent or relative

Here’s the catch: even people with great salaries or a chunky savings account struggle. French landlords want to see French paperwork, and without that, they may see you as too much of a risk. And, the truth is, I also know dozens, if not more, French people who struggle to provide solid dossiers too. I know many who use fake pay stubs and bank statements to make them look better off than they are. That’s how competitive this is!

There are services in place for foreigners or folks without well-off family members, like GarantMe or Visale, but I also know there are some landlords who won’t accept them.

I know it’s not fair, but it’s how the system works.

Where to Look

There are several rental platforms to choose from, but I’ve had the best luck personally on SeLoger, PAP, and Facebook. Craigslist Paris is also worth checking out, but it is full of scams, so be careful. HiPParis has some cool options, but mostly only for buying. Don’t forget Stephen’s Airbnb trick too. There are also rental agencies that specialize in helping expats (if there’s an interest, I can do some digging on ones to try!).

Your best bet? It’s all about word of mouth and people you know.

I know, I know — but, Molli, what if I just moved to Paris and I don’t know anyone yet? I get it! Building community and finding your people takes time, but once you do, a whole new world will open up to you. You never know who you may meet, who may have a friend looking for someone to take over their lease, or an aunt who needs someone to stay in their apartment for a year while they travel.

Like anything else, getting to a point where you can simply ask around and find an apartment in Paris will take some time.

And a lot of times, just when you think it’s never going to work out, it does. You’ll get the call. You’ll sign the lease. You’ll move in.

Prefer video? Watch us discuss finding an apartment in Paris on YouTube!

Photo by Doctor Tinieblas on Unsplash

Did you enjoy this article? TAIP is 100% reader-supported through tipping. If you want to leave us a tip of any amount it would be highly appreciated.  These tips help support our efforts to keep TAIP an ad-free environment. Just like at a cafe, the tips are split evenly among the team. 

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Finding Your Dream Home in Paris Part II: Financing and Signing for Your Property

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If you’ve decided to stay in Paris long term, you may become interested in owning rather than renting. In Part One of this two-part series, I outlined how to find your ideal property. 

Now, as you follow your dream of owning a piece of Paris, the next step is to start thinking about financing your new home as well as how to legally sign for it.

Step One: Choose Your Bank

Check out different banks as to their lending rates. You will want to look at their TAEG (Taux annuel effectif global) which includes various fees above and beyond the interest rate and spread over the time of the loan. Sometimes banks announce a low lending rate but then the fees bring up the cost and the TAEG. Have them print out a proposal for a repayment schedule (échéance de prêt) and simply compare the monthly mortgage offers. Remember, only a couple of tens of euros per month can bring up the total cost of the loan into the thousands.

Also, see how comfortable you are working with a particular bank. The bank will ask you to open an account with them and transfer all your banking needs to that account, i.e., income and all regular transfers. For my last acquisition, I was looking into three banks, including BanquePostale. BanquePostale had the best rate. But, when they became very picayunish as to more document demands, I decided I did not want to spend fifteen years of my financial life with them. However, I was able to use their offer to more strongly negotiate with another bank and then got a good deal from a bank I have been happy to work with since then.

Get a potential agreement from a bank(s) to know where they stand on your real-estate project. They will not sign for a loan until you come to them with a notarized pre-sales agreement. However once that is done, you will only have a short time to get the loan processed. The final negotiations with these banks, and your choice of bank, will take place typically within a month after this agreement is in hand.

Banks can be difficult in awarding loans. The budget question concerns not only how much money you already possess, but how much the banks will be willing to lend. There is a law to protect people against accumulating too much debt (loi surendettement). They must check whether you might be overextending yourself and make sure that you do not. If they do not carry out this role, they can become responsible for your loan. The rule of thumb is that the banks will only lend an amount whereby the monthly payments will not go over 30% of your income, preferably salary.

They do not want to lend to those whose incomes are unsure. They are particularly happy to loan to civil servants, as the latter cannot lose their jobs and therefore can necessarily pay off their loan as planned. They also offer loans to those who have a CDI (Contrat de duréee indeterminée, long-term, unending contract), as such a contract means the person is most likely not to lose their job. On the other hand, if you are neither a civil servant nor have a CDI, but only have a CDD (Contrat à durée déterminée, a fixed term contract) or even worse, you have a freelance job, they may not want to lend to you as they fear you might lose your job and then default. These eventualities must be worked out with the bank.

As a case in point, after three years of legal work to get permission to enlarge my house, I lost my job. Among the answers I got to queries for a bank loan, was the memorable, “Madame, come back to us when you find a job.”

Banks get cold feet and do not want to bother with repossessing your property, no matter its worth, no matter the collateral you offer. They would much rather you just pay and not make waves. It might be mentioned, too, that the law of repossession here is different from in the US. If you walk away from a loan, the bank will sell off your property. If they sell it for more than you owe, they will give you the difference. If, on the other hand, they sell it for less, you remain liable for the difference.

Another French banking difficulty is age. I have just learned that banks will only lend up to the time you are 75 years of age. This means, for example, if you need to borrow 100 000€ at age 65, you must be able to pay back the loan within ten years. Considering interest, insurance, bank fees, mortgage fees… etc. I will ballpark a figure of being capable of paying 1000€/month, and this with an income of a minimum of 3000€/month.

The bank will also try to force you into having your loan insured by them, typically at a rather high cost. Legally you can look for other insurance companies to insure your loan. If you feel the bank will refuse the loan if you do not accept their insurance policy, you might want to accept it just to be able to close, and then change your policy after a year. The law protects this right, but the banks do whatever they can to make it difficult.

Step Two: Make Sure The Bank Likes Foreigners

For Americans who might be buying with money being brought over from the United States, it would be good to discuss the question with a financial advisor, both in the US and France. By law, banks report all cash transactions that exceed $10,000 — the international money transfer reporting limit set by the IRS. This means you need to report any large sum you are bringing over both to the IRS and to the French finance ministry.

The question of foreign transfers gets even thornier in the case where the down payment might be a gift from a US parent. For example, a mother might want to gift her only son $100,000. Under US law she is allowed to gift him $15,000 tax-free per year. After that, a tax applies. 

Under French law, she can gift her son up to 100 000 € every fifteen years. In this case, although he must report this gift to the French Finance Ministry, or his tax office, there should be no French tax on the amount. Before transferring any large amount of money from one country to another be sure to get advice from a professional.

If you want a list of banks that like dealing with Americans, the comments section on this article we wrote is constantly being updated with names of banks.

Step Three: Work With a Notaire to Sign Your Real Estate Sales Acquisition

A real-estate sales acquisition must necessarily take place through the services of a notaire (real estate-inheritance lawyer). You must calculate in your budget the sum over and above the price of the property that must be paid in government taxes and notaire’s fees which are commonly combined and called frais de notaire. A good rule of thumb is to count ten percent, although it usually comes to a bit less.

Once you and the seller have agreed to the sale, the first step is to go to a notaire to sign a promesse de vente (pre-sales agreement). Once the purchase is concluded, the buyer becomes tied to the notaire until the property is no longer theirs. For this reason, it is the buyer who chooses the notaire. Get a recommendation; some do their work better than others and there is relatively little difference in the price. Remember this is a relationship that will last for better or for worse until you sell the property or your children inherit.

This agreement will include the agreed-upon price as well as the time-lapse (typically a month) that is allowed for the purchaser to get (or not) a bank loan. It will also state when the sale is to be signed. Make sure there is a clause that states that if no bank offers a loan, the sale is off at no cost to the purchaser. 

When signing the sales agreement the purchaser will leave a down payment for the seller, but the sum will stay in the hands of the notaire until the final sale is signed. The notaire will also issue you a special document to use whereby should you change your mind within seven days, you will not lose your down payment.

Step Four: Finalize The Negotiations

It is now that you will finalize the negotiations with all those banks you had talked with and make your final decision as to whom you will sign with. On my last purchase, I signed the agreement on a Friday, saw one bank that evening, another the next morning, and left for Chicago on Monday. The rest of the negotiations took place by phone (whereby I got one bright, cheerful call at 3am Chicago time!) and email. I made my final decision on my return three weeks later.

While you are getting your loan in order, the seller will be getting a diagnosis of the property including an ecological report, the final number of square meters and a geological report including whether there is/was a quarry under your building or an underground river bed, whether there are termites, various types of pollution, energy efficiency…

Other things to keep in mind as you prepare to buy: 

  • Are you buying alone? 
  • If there are two of you, are you both signing 50/50 or will the condo belong to only one of you? 
  • Who is paying, or are you both paying? 
  • What is the percentage each one is contributing to the purchase? Remember, in case of any separation the condo will be divided according to each person’s contribution as stated in the deed.

It is possible to make the purchase as an inheritance hedge. For example, you can buy in the form of what is called indivision whereby one person, typically a parent or spouse, will have exclusive use of the property (usufruit) and the other will have ownership. In this case, when the usufruitier passes away, the heir will have untaxed, complete ownership of the property.

Finally, with the bank’s agreement, you can set an appointment and return to the notaire’s for the final signature. The notaire will read aloud every bit of information they have gathered including the date of birth of the previous owner, their profession, how they got the condo, e.g. who they bought from, inherited from, or their loan. On my last acquisition, I was stupefied to learn that the owner had only had a seven-year loan to pay for the property. Those were the days!

Step Five: Pay Attention

Be sure you listen attentively to every word, as boring as it might be. There will be the yearly real estate taxes to be divided up. Now that the living tax (taxe d’habitation) has been more or less phased out, there remains taxe foncier. Normally this will be divided on a pro-rata basis, that each owner will pay the percentage of the part of that year that they owned the property. 

At my last signature, in a second week of September, the owner gracefully said she would fully pay for the taxe d’habitation of that year. I accepted the taxe foncier as of the first week of September, although we only signed on the second week, allowing for a simple division of three quarters and one quarter. It was a very pleasant signature process. The surprised notaire told us the story whereby the buyer and seller negotiated the taxes down to exact pennies.

Make sure everything that was said to be included is indeed included in the deed. For example, my ground-floor neighbor in the main building of my condo gets full use of the garden attached to the building up to the fence where my garden begins. Her exclusive use of the garden was not included in what the notaire read out, and she refused to sign until it was added. In another case, there was a mix-up of storage lockers, and the notaire held back 10 000 € until the right locker was emptied and ready for use for the new owners. Know what you are getting into. You can still refuse to sign if there is a problem that you had not been made aware of.

And now, assuming all has gone well and all the parties concerned have signed all the documents, you will simply leave the notaire’s office, keys in hand, the happy owner of a Paris property. And the rest of the story is yours.

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Finding Your Dream Home in Paris Part I: Location, Location, Location

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If you’ve made the decision to stay for the long haul in Paris, you should be thinking about purchasing your primary residence. As a friend once said to me, paying rent is money thrown away. In spite of rent control, rents do keep increasing. And your landlord/lady can always ask you to leave should they want to sell the condo, house a family member, or move into the condo themselves.

Of course, finding and buying real estate in Paris is easier said than done.

Step One: Determine Your Budget

The first step of your search-and-purchase is setting a budget and deciding on an area. The latter often depends on the former, which implies possible trade-offs in comfort and size for location and price.

The size of the condo will be expressed in square meters (mètres carrés), rather than by its number of bedrooms, all rooms being considered equal. You can thus find a single-room studio condo of 30 square meters, (for a ballpark figure, I tend to multiply by ten to get the number of square feet, thus 300 square feet more or less) just as the same size condo can be divided into 2 rooms. Various sites will inform you of the average price of a square meter in the twenty arrondissements of Paris. You can start by looking here and here.

How these square meters are calculated has been regulated by the loi Carrez which was passed in 1996. It legally defines the living area (surface habitable) of a condominium apartment and must appear in the deed of sale (acte de vente). 

However, the “real” living area may be greater than the living area as defined by the loi Carrez, as it does not include any floor space under 1m80. This means, for example, any sloping roof area in a top-floor apartment, does not count until it reaches 1m80, nor does the area under a staircase until it reaches a height of 1m80. Balconies are not included in this calculation, although they do bring up the price (per square meter) as they make the property more attractive. Also, as another example, my finished basement cannot be considered in the calculation of my house’s liveable surface as the ceiling is at 1m78.

You will thus find announcements that give both loi Carrez (official) living space size and general floor space which might differ, especially for condos on the top floor. The advantage in purchasing a property with such differences is that you can find a nice condo on a top floor, for example, at a lower cost per square meter as it has a sloping ceiling. 

A friend of mine has a wonderful, bright, single-room studio with few square meters according to the loi Carrez, but in fact, has a second floor with a sloping ceiling which serves as a bedroom and bathroom making it into a quasi two-room apartment.

There are, of course, disadvantages. If you ever want to rent out the condo, it is only the square meters according to the loi Carrez that can be taken into account for the Paris rent-control price. Also, you cannot rent out a condo that is smaller than nine square meters according to the loi Carrez, no matter how much floor space there is.

It is to be noted, too, that normally a surveyor has calculated the exact number of square meters in a given condo and this number will be transcribed in the sales deed. You can, once you move in, call in your own surveyor if you believe there is an error in the calculation. If it is found that the condo is more than five percent smaller than the declared surface on the sales deed, you can ask to get a refund for the difference.

Step Two: Determine Where You Want To Live

Check out the average price/square meter in the area you are looking to know in advance if your budget is realistic for the size of the apartment you are looking for. If not, which is more important, location or size? A two-room apartment (i.e. one-bedroom) in the center of Paris, or a three-room apartment in the much less trendy east? Who inhabits the area? Will you be comfortable there? 

An area can differ from one street to another. I was looking for a studio in the 2nd arrondissement and got a call from an agency. He asked if I knew the rue Blondel. No, I didn’t. “There are prostitutes plying their trade there; is that OK with you?” “No thanks, I won’t visit,” even though the price was right. I’m not particularly bothered by prostitutes, but the johns and pimps that accompany them make me uncomfortable.

Visit all the real estate agencies in the area. Get on their lists to be called when something that responds to your criteria comes in. Check online. Agencies advertise on SeLoger, Logic-Immo, and others.

Particulier à Particulier is a site where owners put up their real estate for sale without going through an agency. This is how I found my last purchase, un perle rare (a rare pearl), a French expression for something exceptional: a large studio at a price much lower than the average market price per square meter for the area located in the 100-meter long street that I’d fallen in love with. I badgered the poor seller every evening to get her to let me visit as soon as possible and got myself first in line. After a year of real-estate hunting (the average search time), I knew the prices, knew what I wanted, and neither hesitated nor negotiated and said I’d take it!

Step Three: Get Specific

To save time in your search, when you visit an agency or get a call, ask basic questions beyond the price: 

  • How many square meters is the apartment? Divide the price by the number of square meters and you will get the price/square meter. 
  • What floor is it on? 
  • Is there a lift? 
  • What’s the height of the ceiling? Some ceilings are particularly low; others might be comfortably high. The average is about 2m50. 
  • Is the toilet electric or not? Non-electric toilets are called sani-broyeur. Some toilets have been added to apartments where there are no special toilet pipes and therefore whatever goes in must be ground down. Such a toilet is fragile and always needs changing sooner or later and becomes costly in the long run.

There are various differences in condos to keep in mind. The idea of a “penthouse” is inexistent in Paris. The étage noble (the grand floor, the most opulent of old buildings) is usually the first floor (the one above the ground floor, the second floor in the US) with higher ceilings than the rest of the building, but also more expensive. Top floors, in fact, can be very hot in summer and cold in winter, and usually have sloping ceilings. Ground floors are easy for robbers to get into, tend to be noisier and dirtier from the street, but again, cheaper.

Lift or no lift? It depends on how high your floor is. 5th-floor walk-ups are not uncommon, but less expensive than other floors or apartments that have an elevator. No matter what floor you live on, later you will pay co-owners dues on the lift if there is one.

It is always recommended to ask to see the minutes of the last meeting of the co-owners association (procès-verbal d’assemblée générale) and a copy of the last year’s fees (appels de fonds et de charges). The latter documents will inform you of the approximate yearly cost you will have to pay once you acquire the property. The former will inform you if there are any difficulties within the co-owners association, whether the co-owner selling the property is up to date on their dues, and whether there are any works that have been voted on that you will have to pay for once the property is yours. 

Not looking over these documents may mean you are in for some bad surprises, e.g., animosities among the co-owners making it difficult to get important works done and then paying for them. After moving in I found a wall of my house was separating from the rest of the construction and I had to take both the co-owners association and the contractors next door to court (a two-year process which I won and got everything fixed and all has been well ever since). 

Friends have found an electricity bill that was never paid whereby the new owners cannot get electricity until they can come to an agreement with the utility company. Check, too, the cost of yearly real-estate tax, (taxe fonciere) which you will probably find surprisingly low as compared to US real estate taxes. As a comparison, I pay about 10% of the real estate tax for a similar property in the Chicago area. In fact, Paris real estate taxes tend to be lower than those in other parts of France, as companies pay a good proportion of Paris’ real estate tax. However, our present mayor, Anne Hidalgo has been overspending and this reflects in a yearly rise in the Paris tax bill.

On the other hand, if you find what you believe is your dream property that many others are clamoring for, it can be worth taking the chance (cf. above, my last acquisition) of not looking into these financial questions. I have friends who had seen a condo, checked all the papers, negotiated the price and just before signing the pre-sales agreement, the owner found another purchaser. They finally did buy another condo, but continued to regret the one that got away.

“Seek and Ye Shall Find”

Searching for just the right place to call your own can be exciting, frustrating, long, and time-consuming. But think of it as an adventure as you learn about all the unbelievably different types of living spaces that can be found in Paris. And until you find THE one, consider it a way of learning about this city that you have elected to become home.

In the next article we’ll discuss the financial paperwork necessary to close your real estate deal.

Photo by Isaiah Bekkers on Unsplash

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What It’s Like Living In The “Worst” Part Of Paris

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It’s no secret that finding an apartment is difficult in Paris. People don’t realize how small this city is. For comparison, London is 600 square miles while Paris is 40 square miles. Consider this, and then remember how much space is used for parks, hotels, shops, etc. There’s limited space, so when it’s time to search for a place to live, there are limited options. This is the reality, so have reasonable expectations when getting on your feet here.

The Dossier

If you’re unfamiliar, the French require a dossier (and a weighty one at that) for every apartment you apply for. To put into context the peculiarity of the French dossier, the first application I submitted was rejected because of the kind of work contract I have, which is a freelance contract. My employer even called the agent to explain and verify my contract, but it was to no avail. It stated indefinite work and my salary, but simply because it wasn’t a CDI, they found it “too complicated” to accept my file.

In brief, a dossier contains:

1) valid ID

2) visa

3) the last year’s tax documents (the more taxes you pay, the more money you make)

4) work contract

5) last three months of payslips

6) a garant

7) last three quittances de loyer

8) RIB of your French bank account

My Lack Thereof

I knew that my situation on paper wasn’t as strong as others applying for the same apartments. Landlords (understandably) favor French citizens over foreigners, and at the time, I didn’t even have a French bank account.

Basically, I was working with:

1) valid ID

2) visa

3) work contract (remember, freelance!)

4) tax documents from a year when I was hardly working

5) three months of payslips when I was, again, hardly working

I was missing integral parts of my file like a RIB, a guarantor, and proof of income. My options were even more limited than the average flat seeker.

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures

After some weeks went by without success on PAP.fr, I asked a friend if she knew anyone who had an apartment to rent. This question can seem nervy to some, but if you’re familiar with the “Aladdin Factor,” you can’t get what you don’t ask for. To my surprise, she actually did know someone, and I called that person up the moment her contact was sent to me. She happened to be a realtor who works for an agency that specializes in renting apartments to foreigners. It turned out the apartment in question was her own, thus allowing us to forgo agency fees and conclude a private contract.

I should mention that her willingness to rent to me came from the fact that she herself was once a foreigner getting on her feet in this city. The day we met, she was explaining how hard it was to get all the paperwork in order for a proper dossier when she first moved here. She was kind and understanding of my situation because of our shared experience. Once we signed the contract, I was then given the keys and promptly sent her my deposit. It was an accomplishment for someone in my shoes.

Wonderful, But Weird

The apartment is bright and clean and in a building with kind neighbors. I usually have plans in the evenings, but they frequently have apéros which I’m always welcome to join. They even included me in their building group chat when I first moved in.

When I began telling my friends and colleagues about the apartment, they were happy for me, until I told them which métro stop I lived on. My boss told me, “I have one rule for myself. I never go to La Chappelle or Goutte D’Or. You can’t move there.” I have a good friend who grew up in Montmartre, which is not far from me at all, who explained there are a few good streets and my apartment just so happened to be on one of them. The area is “un quartier populaire” which frankly I haven’t found a good translation for. It’s been described to me as a neighborhood mixed with working class, upper class, and immigrants. Some French speakers who use this term, however, might just be trying to be polite in calling your neighborhood the ghetto (and it isn’t always warranted).

You have to be careful wherever you are, and this place is no different. I personally haven’t been put in any situation in my neighborhood that made me feel in danger. I don’t feel more unsafe here than anywhere else.

The Pros

There’s a market along Rue de L’Olive which has fruits, vegetables, cheese, butter, flowers, etc. Chez Meunier is at the Marx Dormoy metro station on your immediate left. Lomi is down the street across the bridge heading to Montmartre. Lest we not forget the one and only Bob’s Bakehouse. There are other great spots nearby, I’m only listing a few. The intensely bad reputation that Marx Dormoy has is mostly outdated. As one would anywhere else, be aware of your surroundings and you’ll be fine.

As a single woman who often gets home after midnight, I haven’t been followed or harrassed. From what I’ve gathered by talking with people who have lived here much longer than me, the area has been cleaned up from what it once was. It’s still in the process of getting better. All this is to say, Paris as a whole is pretty safe. I feel more uncomfortable on the East Coast of the US in New York or in Philadelphia where I grew up.

I don’t live in a glamorous neighborhood, but I don’t fear for my life. Living in Marx Dormoy for me has its functional benefits. It’s less expensive than other areas and the apartments are a comfortable size. I’ve been inside a few, and I only have praise for the ones I’ve seen. They’re clean and spacious. For example on the main street there’s an apartment building with a shared garden, it’s shockingly quiet and smells amazing because of the flowers.

The Cons

The area isn’t as built up as other parts. It isn’t as beautiful or trendy. There’s underutilized space that people take advantage of for the wrong reason. It’s crowded with people either begging or selling cigarettes right outside of the métro. There’s a whole area along the main street which would be perfect for outdoor seating if it could be cleaned up. Along one of the streets heading to my apartment men at night like to sit along the fence, drink, and sometimes leave their trash behind.

It’s not central by any means. In my case this doesn’t pose too many issues since I mostly travel to central areas. When it’s time to go to places like Bastille, that’s where it gets a little annoying. Once I rode my bike to Supersonic and had to leave it there for a few days because of a flat tire. I eventually walked it back, but it was about an hour on foot.

In Conclusion

The worst part of Paris may be my next-door neighbor, but Paris is still Paris. As long as you’re careful then you should be fine. “Area” doesn’t always determine if you’re in danger or not. There are reports everywhere of pickpockets and people getting mugged, even in Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand.

Photo was taken near Rue de La Chapelle while heading to the Marx Dormoy metro.

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Getting a Paris Apartment: My Story

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Stephanie shows by this article that you don’t always have to have your plans figured out before you get here, as long as you’re willing to hustle a bit. 🙂 -SH

The many expats I’ve met in Paris all seem to have organized their move to France with precise detail, preparing months and months in advance. TAIP’s upcoming book is an example of that.

My experience was a little different.

I pretty much threw things together, gave myself just over a month to prepare (from applying for the visa to hopping on the plane), and left everything in my NYC apartment just in case my big Paris move did not go as planned.

Fortunately, everything worked out, with a few bumps here and there.

Pivoting to Paris

My decision to move to France came about after experiencing the sudden loss of a close member of my family. I was absolutely devastated and a tsunami of grief consumed my mind and soul.

I needed to get away from NYC. I needed to heal. Paris was the place I wanted to be.

Returning to live in France had been on my bucket list ever since spending a few years in Bordeaux right after college. The dream had remained on the back burner for years until the family crisis put everything into perspective.

France healed me many moons ago and I knew it could heal me now. And it was imperative to make things happen quickly before my logical brain tried to convince me to stay put.

While the move might have looked risky to those around me, it really wasn’t. My business is portable and I had tried on the digital nomad lifestyle the year before. It worked then and I knew it could work in Paris now.

After a helpful phone consult with the TAIP team, I moved full speed ahead with the visa paperwork and a little over a month later arrived in Paris with a reservation for a two-week stay in an Airbnb in the 2nd arrondissement, one large suitcase in hand and the goal to get an apartment of my own.

Because I spoke the language and had a good sense of the culture, I thought I could roll into Paris and things would come together quickly.

Nope.

In retrospect, things ended up coming together pretty quickly, but at the time, it was stressful with a lot of uncertainty and bumps along the way. It’s clear I underestimated what was entailed.

One Step At A Time

Almost immediately after landing in Paris, I began looking for permanent digs. My goal was a furnished one-bedroom apartment in central Paris, i.e. a single-digit arrondissement.

Coming from NYC, the land of small and expensive apartments, I found that rents in Paris were less than what I would expect to pay back home. Newcomers from less-pricey locales may experience sticker shock or surprise at the size of the average Parisian rental.

A friend who had lived in Paris suggested looking at the English-language site Fusac. Fusac is an online ad space with varied listings including rental apartments and sublets.

With Fusac, it’s a bit catch-as-catch-can. Listings are not extensive but one in the Marais (3rdarrondissement) caught my eye.

While the place turned out to only be available for a short-term sublet, it was perfect as a stop-gap as it allowed me to stop paying nightly Airbnb rates should the search drag on.

The owner’s son was able to show me the apartment right away; it turned out to be spacious, charming, and well-located. The Belgian owner lived in Bali, and rented his place out for a few months at a time at a nightly rate that was much less than what I was paying at the Airbnb.

I grabbed it right away as a short-term solution while I continued to look. No papers were signed on either side nor was a security deposit requested. I simply wired the money for the first month and picked up keys from the neighbor. Sending money without a written agreement might have seemed risky at the time — and I would certainly never recommend it — but it felt right and everything turned out great.

Having a reasonable place to stay for two months was a Godsend. I now had some breathing room while I continued to search for a permanent place.

Apps, Listings, and Unresponsive Brokers, Oh My!

Paris has a number of apartment listing apps where you can set up alerts with your desired criteria: neighborhood(s), apartment size, rent range, elevator or walk-up, furnished, etc. Some of the ones I used are seloger.com, pap.fr, nestoria.fr, and jinka.fr.

Pap is short for particulier à particulier, person to person, with the big bonus of no agency fees though there is a heightened risk of being scammed.

The other sites mainly have agency listings.

What’s terrific about Paris is the surfeit of furnished listings. And when I say furnished, we’re not just talking furniture. In the case of the apartment I eventually rented, it came with everything, including sheets, towels, pillows, and bedding, a fully-equipped kitchen with plates, glasses, and silverware, even an umbrella, iron, coat hangers, and cleaning supplies. It feels like an Airbnb where you roll up with your suitcase and you’re ready to go.

As a foreigner arriving in Paris with just a suitcase, furnished apartments are a godsend.

The one drawback is that the landlord can (but doesn’t always) ask for two months of security deposit for a furnished apartment as opposed to one month for a non-furnished apartment, but that seemed like a fair exchange compared to the savings in time, energy and money outfitting an apartment.

Upping My Chances

To rent an apartment in Paris, the barrier to entry is high, and not being French makes things harder. The market is competitive and because renters’ rights are very strong in France and it’s hard to kick out non-paying tenants, landlords are risk averse.

As a self-employed American without a CDI which proves that the person has a permanent job and a regular paycheck, I needed a guarantor to co-sign the lease alongside me, guaranteeing the rent would be covered if I stopped paying. French friends could have done this for me, but it seemed like too much of an ask to have them submit a ton of financial paperwork, so I went with the private guarantor service garantme.

The garantme process involved submitting a bunch of financial paperwork (tax returns, bank statements, and a letter from my accountant), but within about 24 hours I was approved and received a Certificate of Eligibility which stated that I was good to pay up to X amount per month. I then submitted the certificate number as part of my dossier for any apartment I was interested in.

Garantme does not come cheap. The tenant pays Garantme 3.5% of the annual rent including charges and this is for every year of the lease. The landlord pays nothing. There is no upfront fee with garantme; the fee is paid only at lease signing.

The Search Unfolds

The alerts I had set up were working and I was getting pinged several times a day with new listings. Some looked decent; some not so much.

Initially, I sent out messages and…crickets.

Things changed for the better once I had the garantme certificate in hand, which I made sure to mention in my outgoing messages to agents. Finally, some responses.

Eventually some apartments actually started being offered to me: through Fusac, a six-floor walk-up on the Left bank that was only available as a long-term sublet, and a duplex apartment in the Marais which looked amazing on video but could only be viewed via video, not in person.

Neither felt quite right and I wasn’t desperate yet thanks to the breathing room my two-month sublet gave me. I declined both.

Then through seloger came a listing for a super cute one-bedroom in the Marais just down the street from my sublet. It ticked all the boxes: great neighborhood, cute design, elevator, bike storage, and air conditioning. The biggest plus was that the agent actually responded to my message. A visit was set up.

The place was better than many I’d seen and by this point the search was wearing on me. I talked up the garantme certificate to the agent and he told me that there were three other interested parties. I just wanted to be done. I needed to get settled and start my business back up. To sweeten the deal, in typical NYC closer fashion I offered up an additional 100 euros a month beyond the advertised rent.

The landlord was making her decision later in a week.

In the interim, another option came in through PAP. Located in a landmark building in the heart of the Marais, the apartment was impeccable and could have easily appeared in a designer mag. It had everything I could have wanted and I would have given anything to live there. I sent the landlord a heartfelt note about why I would be an amazing tenant, but alas, she went with another applicant.

She had made it clear she was looking for a stable tenant who would stay for the long term, and in retrospect as a self-employed American having just arrived in Paris, I don’t think I quite fit the profile she was looking for.

Eureka!

Back to Plan A. The super cute Marais one bedroom was offered to me, and it was an immediate yes on my part. The idea of getting the apartment search off my to-do list was pure relief.

The next steps involved paying garantme, signing the lease, paying the security deposit, and then obtaining renters’ insurance, which my landlord required. The real estate agent connected me with a company that assisted with getting the electrical bill switched to my name and setting up wifi.

Having a signed lease in hand became the golden ticket allowing me to open a French bank account, which up to that point had been a time-consuming and fruitless quest.

At move-in I paid the agency fee and the first month’s rent.

Between all the fees and the two months of security, getting my Paris pad has required me to pony up quite a bit upfront. And it was practically a full-time endeavor when I was in the thick of it. But hearing about other expat’s nightmare stories of schlepping from one Airbnb or sublet to the next because they cannot get a landlord to rent to them, I consider myself lucky.  It’s been three months since move-in and now that the stress of the search is over, I couldn’t be happier with my new home.

Photo is of my new place!

Did you enjoy this article? TAIP is 100% reader-supported through tipping. If you want to leave us a tip of any amount it would be highly appreciated. These tips help support our efforts to keep TAIP an ad-free environment. Just as at a cafe, the tips are split evenly among the team.

To Rent or To Own in Paris?

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The most important fact to begin this discussion — which is directed at those who wish to live in Paris, not those who wish to buy rental properties in Paris — is that the current interest rates for fixed mortgages are between 2-3%.  When interest rates are so low, buying becomes attractive, even in Paris.  Add in the fact that tenants of properties have right of first refusal on a property to be sold and buying becomes easier.  But attractive and easy do not necessarily equal simple.  There are a few things to keep in mind.

Selection

I would not recommend buying in a neighborhood that you have never lived in.  With Airbnb and other such options, you have the ability, like never before, to stay some weeks in a neighborhood or arrondissement to get a sense of the scale and speed of it.  Meet the shopowners.  Take a coffee.  Walk around.

Primary vs Secondary

One of the ways that the French state discourages real estate speculation is by levying a significantly higher tax on the sale of a secondary residence vs your primary one.  The “buy and flip” model doesn’t really work here, as a result.

Roots

If, like me, you reject modern notions like “starter home” or the idea that your home is an “investment” that you can sell, like a piece of art or a watch, when the price is right, selection becomes even more important.  What are my neighbors like?  The noise level?  Cleanliness?  This is where you will spend most of your time so it should be better than just tolerable.

Paperwork

The dossier you prepare when you’re renting will remind you of that for the prefecture, except unlike at the prefecture, where if you follow directions you stand a good chance of gaining what you went in there for, when renting you’re competing against others in a zero-sum game — if you get the apartment, they can’t, and vice versa.  You’re going to need:

  • Photocopies of your ID(s) = passport + carte de séjour
  • Photocopy of your CDI or CDD if employed, as well as your last three payslips
  • If you are self-employed, your most recent tax filings and/or bank statements from your business account can serve as substitutes for the CDI + payslips
  • Your last three rental receipts from your last landlord, whether that was in France or elsewhere
  • If you think you need a guarantor, you’ll need their EDF and the last three payslips as well

You’ll make multiple copies of this dossier, both in hard copy and digitally, so that you can send them in the format that your potential landlord prefers.

The French, because the law is so dramatically in favor of tenants, really want assurance that they will have the rent reliably paid and in full, and as such will usually pick the highest-earning dossier.  As such there is a common practice of forging/using a friend’s high-income pay slip to “enrich” your dossier.  Many Parisians know at least one person who has done this to get an apartment, if they have not done so themselves!

In extreme cases some landlords will require a year’s rent to be held as escrow as security against a default — but I’ve only read about this, and have never actually met anyone who had to do this.

The guarantor (or cosigner, as we would call it in America) is the most frequently-used device, however, for the risk-averse landlord, and a friend recently told me that despite the dual incomes of her and her husband which totaled far above the rule-of-thumb “three times the monthly rent” at least one potential landlord asked her if she also had a guarantor.

All leases in France are governed by the 2015 Alur Law and you cannot simply make up your own lease.  If you want to do the simplest thing, which I did while negotiating my recently-signed three-year lease, just click here to use a free template which conforms to the law.

Some Recent Prices I’ve Seen

Apart from the Syndic, which I discuss below, there’s also property tax for owners, which is really pretty low — on my apartment it’s around 1000 € a year.  I often stop when passing by an immobilier (real estate agent) on a Paris street, just to get a sense of prices in whatever neighborhood I’m in, and to continue to hone my sense of the market overall.  I am sharing these three examples to give you a sample:

6 rue Guenot, in the 11th, 2 bedrooms, 27 square meters, 240,000 €

161 rue des Pyrenees, in the 20th, 3 bedrooms, 52 square meters, 374,000 €

5 passage du chemin vert, in the 11th, 4 bedrooms, 94 square meters, 810,000 €

Yes, I know I’m exposing a Right Bank bias, but I’ve never seriously looked on the Other Side of the river.

Last Things

When you become an owner, not just a renter, apart from the maintenance of the apartment itself, you will be subject to charges from the Syndic — similar to an HOA in America — that can sometimes be very costly.  They recently installed some new piping in the hallways of our apartment and my landlady’s share was 15,000 €!  If you don’t pay, the Syndic can start legal action against you, though it is so ponderously slow that you’ve got enough time to put together the cash you need before it ever goes to court.  Your monthly fees can be around 50 €/square meter per year, so my 53 square meter apartment costs around 2650 € in Syndic fees — which are paid by the owner, not by you.  The Syndic is usually hired by the association of co-owners of the building — i.e. all of the separate owners — and is a managing agent of sorts.  They ensure that maintenance is done, that the building is cleaned, and if necessary, hire a guardian/concierge (our building doesn’t have one, though my last two apartments did, and we seem to get along fine without one).

I’ve said before that I’d like to get a small place just outside Paris for the occasional weekend retreat, but with the recent signing of this lease, and with my landlady’s indication that she may very well wish to sell at the end of the term, I may be in the market to buy in Paris sooner than I expected.  But the dominant thought on my mind as I signed the lease last week was that it would be three years before I would need to think about either my living or immigration situation again, and that allows me time to focus on other, less paperwork-intensive, subjects.

Photo by JOHN TOWNER on Unsplash

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Unexpected Consequences of an International Move: Instant & Ongoing Decluttering

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I’ve mentioned before on this blog that the Four Hour Work Week is a major influence on my life and was a big part of the “how” portion of the massive quality of life upgrade that was my move from America to Europe.  In the book Tim puts forth a notion called “mini retirements” in which instead of working and saving until some mythical age to sell everything and move to Thailand (for example) why not do that now for a few weeks and see if you actually like it.  There are other reasons to take mini-retirements, including not assuming you’re in control of your health or when you die, but what I want to focus on is Tim’s insistence that you dump pretty much everything.

Stuff.  It can define us.  And Americans in particular have so much room that nothing stops us from buying more.  We even define our “national holidays” by sales of stuff.  We even have a very healthy business category of self-storage, which is an embodiment of our hoarding mentality.  Alas, that industry is now kicking off in Paris (and probably greater France as well).

Tim’s points were simple: get rid of everything that doesn’t have a particular or sentimental value.  You can always buy another couch, or plates, but maybe you can’t buy that one pan Grandma taught you to cook with.  Dump the other stuff, keep that.

I decided pretty quickly that my “must keeps” consisted of roughly 100 framed prints that had mostly been painstakingly transported from Europe over the years and adorned all the spaces of my then-home in America, as well as the 4000 books that I had collected over many stops of library book sales and used and new bookstores over the years.  I spoke to a friend in Canada who had a large amount of space in a new home he had recently moved into, and who also happens to homeschool his kids.  He would get a teaching and parenting resource for free, as well as for his own enjoyment, and I would have free and safe storage of my treasures.  We agreed on a 5-year term, after which time we could discuss what was to follow.  I knew after 5 years in Europe (I’m 2 in now) I would either have a place to ship the books or have a long-term plan about what to do with them.

So books and art sorted.  I rented a large truck about 6 months before I left the USA and drove the books to Canada.  As a note, if you do this, the Canadians will ask you for a value, so they can tax you…on stuff you already own…because hey, you might choose to sell it!  So, cynically (and in keeping with American, and what I would find out, French traditions), I assessed the 4000 books at a value of $.01 each and the art at $1.00 each, to a value of roughly $200, which I still had to pay tax on.  Small price to pay honestly, but it does add an extra 30-45 minutes to your border crossing.

I then proceeded to dump all the furniture I had painstakingly picked out during my “I’m a grown-up now with a real salary” phase when my college furniture found the curb.  These were the delicious dark wood headboards, the plush suede couches, the tasteful (and useful) ottomans.  I even had a lovely Victorian double-sided desk.  All gone: happily mostly sold to friends and friends of friends, and what was still left over went onto Craigslist.  For the very last items (what was I doing with my own power drill?), I left them with my sisters to sell on their own or keep.

That left me with roughly 20 resealable tubs into which I mostly, but not exclusively, put items of real sentimental value.  Stuffed animals I had as a child which I kept in really great condition and which I wished to pass on to my children or to my nieces and nephews.  A report on birds I wrote as a ten-year-old.  A drawing my sister made for me.  That kind of stuff.  Some dear friends have been kind enough to keep those tubs in a spare room in their home.  I plan to keep reducing the quantity of tubs in that room every time I visit, loaded with goodies from Europe for my gracious caretakers.  And each year that passes that I don’t miss the stuff in those tubs, it makes it that much easier to get rid of when I do see it again.

In truth, limiting myself to the four full-sized pieces of luggage I ended up bringing to France was an enormous task that I totally underestimated.  I flew American Airlines to France in December 2013 and at that time the policy was: 1st bag free, 2nd bag $100, and bags 3-10, $289 each.  Hard to believe, but this is actually the cheapest and fastest way to move your stuff.  I checked into freight, believe me, and either my calls weren’t returned, or my emails weren’t returned, or it was prohibitively expensive when I did manage to get a price sheet.  Same for UPS, sea-freight even.  And then you have to go to Le Havre to pick it up.  Yeah, skip that.  Pack it with you.  It’s really cheap, comparatively.

Now, when you’re bringing that much stuff (my aforementioned four pieces of luggage…I won’t even share the absurd limits of carry-on that I stretched), you find a way to bring too much, so I want to encourage you to spend one month packing these 4 pieces (or fewer).  You’ll take more stuff out as you work on it every day and keep asking “Do I have to have this?”  I know when I showed up at the airport that I was at least five pounds over on each bag.  But I knew how to get around this: the skycap.

This profession doesn’t exist in Europe, oddly, though it is exactly the sort of profession you expect to exist there.  They are (for my Euro friends who might be reading) men and women who stand on the curbside to help those who wish to “skip the line” get boarding passes and check bags there instead.  For this “convenience” you are expected to tip — anywhere from $5-$25/bag.

That morning that I left Kansas City the skycap picked up all 4 of my bags and gave a slight grunt for the last one, the heaviest.  “Where ya goin’?”  “Paris.”  His eyes widened as he looked back over the bags, quickly calculating how much it was going to cost me.  “I’m moving.”  “Ah.”  He started weighing the bags, and I watched each bag on the digital readout.

53 lbs

57 lbs

52 lbs

61 lbs

“They are all over.”  He was reminding me of the 50-pound weight limit I was already aware of.  Overweight would add $150 to each bag.  I nodded, putting on a guilty and downtrodden look.  I wanted my silence to speak.

“I can take care of this for you, if you make it worth my while,” he said after a beat or two.  I tried not to beam and high-five myself, as this was the exact response I was banking on.  I took out my last bit of American currency I was carrying, a $50 bill, and put it on the counter.  I still said nothing.

Given that he was about to save me $600, he was expecting more, I’m sure, but he probably realized that $50 was good pay for 5 minutes and a few key strokes that indicated that yes, these bags weighed no more than 50 pounds.

We were operating in that shadow economy, and little did I know that this was precisely the kind of hustle I needed to survive and thrive in my new country.

So, to sum up:

  1. Get rid of mostly everything.  Try to come up with creative, trade-based, non-recurring monthly cash flow ways of storing the rest.  You need to spend as little as necessary in your new country when you first get there.
  2. Take a long time to pack what you are bringing, in order to have a critical instead of a stressed and harried eye to look it over with.
  3. Don’t hesitate to leverage American idiosyncrasies to bring what you want.
  4. However, do be pragmatic and take the time necessary to figure out what you really need vs. what you can buy when you get there.

A giant move out of the country can be the impetus for that Spring Cleaning you always aspire to do (and which my sister Clare does roughly every 3 months) but never get around to.  Which is yet another reason to move abroad.

And when you do get here, the housing in Paris is small enough to prevent you from restarting that life of stuff you left behind.  When you shop, you constantly ask yourself, “where would I put that?” which is a practical question that you don’t have to answer in always too-big America.

* * *

For a great video to share with kids or anyone who cares about our planet and the absurd and unsustainable way of life in the First World, check out the work that these guys have been doing.

Photo from jsmjr.  Labeled for reuse.  What a cute dog.

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