Guide on how to rent a house in Spain

Guide on how to rent a house in Spain

2024-02-15 11:23:43

For those that want to study or work in Spain, having a safe temporary home in a convenient location is very important. This article will guide you through the important steps and tips that you need to bear in mind when searching for your next home. If you are in need of health insurance to fulfill the visa requirements then click here

 

1. You need to figure out your objective before searching

2. Inform yourself of the types of accommodations available

3. Begin with your search and contact agencies/landlords

4. Steps after seeing your ideal home

 

 

1. You need to figure out your objective before searching


Think about what you want for a living enviornment

 

Before beginning your search, you need to decide what are the most important factors in this search. You can ask yourself questions like:

 

  • Do you need to live on a tight budget, or do you want to enjoy the Spanish lifestyle to the fullest?
  • Do you want to live alone, or do you prefer to get to know new people?
  • Do you want to stay near your school, or you like to live in a vibrant cultural district?
  • What are the necessary household appliances that you cannot live without?

 

It will save you a lot of time since you can apply filters to your searches on major renting websites.

 

 

2. Inform yourself of the types of accommodations available

 

If you are a working professional, usually you have the following options to choose from:

 

  • homestay or au pair: living in a family that welcomes professionals, international students, or tourists. This is a fairly economical way to save money and the quickest way to experience the culture.
  • sharing a room (compartir una habitación): sharing a room with someone else. This means that you will share a bedroom with someone else. With this option, you can usually pay much less but you need to manage well with the co-living life.
  • Sharing an apartment (compartir un piso): sharing an apartment with someone else. The difference between this option and the former one is that you will have an individual room but share the rest of the facilities with other roommates.
  • Studio Apartments (estudio): an independent living option usually with only 1 room. It’s the ideal option for people who want to live on their own and don’t like to share an apartment with other people. It´s usually more expensive than the two options mentioned above since you will have an individual kitchen, and bathroom and will afford all the living expenses individually.
  • Flats or villas (piso, chalet): renting a whole apartment/villa for single or family use. This option is bigger than a studio, resulting in a higher price on average.

 

For students, there are other available options:

 

  • Room in university residence: room in a residence hall of a specific university. In Spain, many universities have their residence hall, located near the campus. Price is often similar to the room in a student residence. If you want to choose this option, it’s recommended to book a room as early as possible since the number of rooms is highly limited.
  • Room in student residence: often a well-designed and fully equipped room with essential facilities for personal use. Students need to apply for a reservation. Usually, the residence will ask for credentials like an invitation or enrollment letter from the university. The rooms are sometimes available for the whole academic year. You can choose whether you want to share the room with other students or not. The price is usually similar to or less expensive than the studio price in the same city.
  • Rooms or apartments available only for students: can be usually found in student housing agencies. This type of housing is different from a room in a student residence since they are normal houses to be rented. But they are organized and prepared to rent to students only by the agency.

 

 

3. Begin with your search and contact agencies/landlords

 

Besides talking with housing agencies offline, there are also several popular online housing search engines operating in Spain:

 

 

 

4. Steps after seeing your ideal home

 

After seeing your ideal home on the websites mentioned, don’t hesitate to contact the agencies involved or the landlord directly if possible.

 

  • In most cases, if you want to rent the whole place, such as a studio or an apartment. You might encounter many agencies.

 

  • However, if you want to rent a room in a shared apartment, you will more likely be in direct contact with the landlord.

 

Apartment view of Spain

 

It’s hard to decide which of the two possibilities is better since contacting directly with a landlord may save you the agency fee while contacting a reliable agency might assure you more security. Therefore, the determinant factor is the rental contract. It should be in Spanish and contain all the required items because you need to present this contract at the city town hall to get the city town hall registration (empadronamiento) done. It’s also recommended that you check with the agency or the landlord if their contract or if they can help with the city town hall registry before signing the contract.

 

After renting the house and getting your empadronamiento certificate, you need to present all the required papers to the national police station (Policía National). This includes the health insurance certificate, for example, Adeslas´ expat insurance fulfills all the visa requirements.

 

If you would like to know more about this topic, check out one of these other blogs:

 

Reference:

 

[1]guides, S., & Spain, S. (2021). Study in Spain: Housing & Living Costs. Retrieved 21 July 2021, from https://www.educations.com/study-guides/europe/study-in-spain/housing-accommodation-12570 

 

Our content will be updated according to the most recent legislation. Last update: 06/07/2023

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