Study abroad: How to find your new flat

Studying abroad is a unique experience. You can get to know a foreign country and a completely different culture. However, it is important to plan your stay well. You should choose a place of study where you can learn content that fits perfectly with your study goals. It is also important to choose a country that interests you culturally and where you would like to live for a few months. Through the Erasmus exchange programme, you will find countless opportunities for this within Europe. One of the biggest problems during a stay abroad is finding a place to live. Especially in the big cities, it is not easy to find suitable accommodation. Moreover, the search is often very difficult from afar. Here we give you some tips on how to tackle this challenge.

The first place to go: the Counselling Centre for Foreign Students

In Germany, there is probably a counselling office for foreign students at every university. This is also common at most other European universities. As a rule, this should be your first point of contact. Here you can get a lot of important information - from how to study abroad to what to do in your free time. As a rule, the staff can also give you tips on finding a place to live. It is often possible, for example, to get a room in a student hall of residence. This has a number of advantages. Rooms in student halls of residence are not only particularly inexpensive. You also come into contact with many young people from all over the world. This makes it easy to settle into a new place. However, these rooms offer only moderate comfort. If you want nicer accommodation and a bit more privacy, you will have to look for a room or flat on the private housing market. This is also the case if there is no room left in the student hall of residence. The Counselling Centre for International Students can also be helpful here. The staff can give you lots of tips on where you can find a room in the city in question.

Searching locally - a difficult task

The classic way to find a room or flat is to search locally. The local newspapers often contain advertisements from private flat owners. There are also lots of notices at the university. If you are interested in accommodation, you can go and see it in person. It is also important to talk to the landlord in person. However, this type of accommodation search is very difficult, especially for international students, because they have to be on site. It is possible to travel before the start of your studies to look for a flat. However, this involves a lot of effort. Another alternative is to first stay in a hotel and then start looking for accommodation locally. However, this is quite expensive - especially considering that it can take longer to find a room. Therefore, it is not necessarily recommended for foreign students to look for accommodation in this way.