Flat hunting is never easy but after three days of sleeping on my friend’s wooden floor I realised I had to approach the issue of finding a flat otherwise I would spend my forthcoming year in Spain at the chiropractor. After researching all the possibilities I realised that when looking for an apartment in Madrid there are three options:
· The first option is to solicit the help of an estate agent. This seems like a great (well, lazy lets be honest) way to find a place to live. However, be warned although this can save you time and energy doing the leg work yourself, these “perma-smile” agents can see innocent erasmus students coming a mile away and it can end up costing you a lot of money in the long run – initial fee, daily fee, sign on fee. My advice is to try and avoid anyone that wears too much fake tan, has pearly white teeth and wears trousers that are too tight (usually ex-pats attempting to look European…but failing!)
· The second option is to go online during the summer and find an apartment virtually. This option is cheaper but can be time consuming trawling the Internet adverts. There is also the added risk that you’re flatmate isn’t quite the muscular looking “Chico” shown in his profile picture but José a 50 year old Spanish man who likes handball (a very strange European game) and young foreign girls. Be careful to THOROUGHLY check out who you are living with before you agree to anything!
· Your third option is to just wing it! Turn up in the country a week before starting work/uni and hope you find a nice place to live. This option is cheap and allows you to meet future flat mates (eliminating the risk of living with a serial killer), however, it can be stressful and tiring. Mostly it involves you spending your evening sifting through idealista.com‘s grottiest looking adverts until you find one on page 33 that looks vaguely habitable. You then proceed to ring the number of the landlord and struggle in broken Spanish to arrange an appointment for the next day. When the next day comes you are of course running late and end up taking the wrong metro line resulting in you sprinting up calle Alcala and arriving at the apartment dripping with sweat and unable to speak – this of course is not a great first impression to your potential new flat mates. This goes on for a few days until eventually you find the right place with the right people (who like you even if you are a bit sweaty!)
So three days and fourteen apartments later I have finally found a place to live for the next year. Success. Now I just face the small issue of not being able to converse with my flatmates…oh well, one step at a time!