So you have decided to move abroad: congrats, that’s awesome!! But now you have to find housing abroad: not so awesome.
This can be a terribly daunting task, especially if you don’t speak the language of the country you’re moving to well.
I had an exceptionally difficult time finding housing when I decided to move abroad to the Netherlands without knowing any Dutch. So, I’d like to share eight tips I learned from my experience so that finding a place to live will hopefully be a little less stressful for you.
It’s so easy to get scammed if you’re an “international.” Especially if you aren’t able to see a place before you sign the lease because you’re not yet in the country. This was quite a big problem when I was looking for a room in Utrecht, as I came across quite a few scams myself. I also know some people who were unlucky enough to have paid a deposit in desperation for a place to live, only to be ghosted. No money and no accommodation.
The reason for this problem was that people were desperate for a room due to the shortage of affordable housing. Unfortunately, others were taking advantage of this desperation.
If possible, don’t sign a contract or send any money until you get a chance to view the place. If that’s not possible, perhaps ask to see the place through a video call with the renter/ leaser.
Be on the look out for anything shady about the person renting or the place that’s up for rent. Use your instincts. Also, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Facebook is a great tool to use when trying to find a place. The inhabitants of the house where I eventually got a room looked for roommates by posting in a Facebook group.
Just search for a room-searching group in the city you want housing and send a message to anyone looking for leasers or sub-leasers.
Another option is to join an expat Facebook group for the city or country you’re moving to. See if there is anyone who knows of a place, or simply who can give you tips on where to look.
[Pro tip]: Make your messages and responses to ads super interesting! Chances are that many other people also sent messages to the ad, so make yourself stand out. When my house was looking for a new roommate, we had over 100 people respond to our ad…it was that bad.
I’ve seen some really creative ways of getting people’s attention. Some of these include making a video of why you should be chosen as a roommate or using posting something funny that attracts interest.
Some websites I came across in my search were HousingAnywhere and IAmExpat. Be careful with these websites, because I know of a scam that was posted on HousingAnywhere. But this doesn’t mean all of them are.
Also, be aware that you have to pay a commission to the website if you decide to rent a place using their platform.
The country you are going to may also have a website specific to that country. In the Netherlands, for example, there was a website called Kamernet. This website is actually how I ended up finding my room. I had to pay a small monthly fee to access the ads for rooms, but it was definitely worth it in the end.
Lots of my friends who moved to Utrecht like me ended up staying in hostels for the first few days or weeks of school. That was because they couldn’t find anything due to the shortage of rooms.
The good thing was that they got to see the housing before they moved in, as they were already in the country. It’s also a lot easier to find housing when you’re in the country, as renters may not want to make contracts with foreign strangers on the Internet. It’s easier to trust someone when you meet them face to face. And using this method, you can ask for help from locals that you meet when you’re actually there.
I actually came to Utrecht about a month before moving there so that I could see the houses before signing a contract. I would recommend doing this if you don’t want to move to a country without having a housing contract first.
I was lucky to have made some friends from the Netherlands before I moved there, and I was able to ask them questions about what websites to use to find housing.
Some of my friends were even luckier. They had friends that had or knew of rooms that were available and helped them get leases.
Also, just ask anyone you can think of for leads. Moving abroad for school? Ask your university for help. Moving abroad for work? Ask the company if anyone knows of vacancies. Odds are, someone will know of something.
And when things start getting desperate or if you don’t want to deal with the headache of finding a place to live in a place where you aren’t in yet or whose language you don’t yet, hire a professional to do it for you.
Just be aware that sometimes even this option doesn’t mean guaranteed accommodation. You should also be wary of scammers for this too. You never know if you can trust that someone won’t take advantage of a foreigner not in the country and desperate for housing.
You might have certain expectations about living abroad. But if you’re moving abroad to a place where housing is hard to come by, take whatever you can get.
For example, you might be looking only at places where you would have native roommates, but that can be difficult to get. Lots of natives may not want to live with a foreigner, especially if it means that they have switch to English when you’re around. And if you’re not going to stay in the country indefinitely, then they will have to deal with finding someone new again.
You may want to live alone, but that can be very expensive, especially in highly populated cities with not enough housing. In these cases, you might have to share with roommates.
You may want to live in a large, spacious apartment, but the country’s architecture may offer only smaller spaces than what you’re used to.
In short, be prepared for anything. Grab whatever housing opportunity you can. Better that than to end up homeless!
Renters may be more likely to sign a lease with you if you show them the respect of attempting to use their language. Also, if you know the language at least at a basic conversational level, it will definitely be easier to find housing abroad. This way, you broaden your options as you can search among renters who only speak that language.
If you do manage this, make sure you have someone you trust and who is fluent in the language to translate the contract for you. You don’t want any unpleasant surprises coming up due to language differences!
While housing hunting in foreign country can be extremely stressful, I hope that these tips help you find a place to live quickly so that you can start your adventure abroad faster! And when you do, check out my tips for making the most out of living abroad 🙂
If you have any other tips, please comment them below for us!
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When I moved abroad housing was way harder than I expected! You're totally right - there are SO MANY scammers! We almost fell into a few traps! We also found Facebook groups to be a bit hit and miss! We ended up using a realtor and it was great! We told him exactly what we were looking for and he found it!