Do it Yourself Acommodation Finding Guide

Finding a place to stay in Madrid can prove to be a difficult task. There are several options you can try, but here are a few things you should know before beginning your search.

About Madrid....

Madrid is a capital city and the average rent compared to other parts of Spain is ridiculously high.  In fact, most people live at home with their parents until the age of 30 or share a place with at least 2 to 6 other people in order to afford the rent. The price of apartments has risen over the last few years, especially for one and two bedrooms.  If you insist on having your own place, count on paying a minimum of 700 to 1000 euros a month for anything decent near the center.  A more intelligent option is to look for a three or four bedroom apartment farther away from the center and split the costs.  Prices vary for the bigger apartments but usually start around 1000 euros a month. It is pretty easy to find roommates in September / October and throughout the rest of the academic year if you keep your prices low enough, so if you don't mind having some of the rooms go empty for up to two months a year, meet all of the landlord's requirements and have everything in order, it could be a good idea to get a bigger place and rent out the extra rooms to keep your rent down. If you want to be more selective you can contact an accommodation finding service who can send you people that match a particular description you give them for free. If you do not have all the necessary paperwork, money or do not want to handle the responsibility for your own place, you can just look for a room in a shared flat. This is a lot easier than trying to get your own place and you have the added bonus of meeting new people.

Best time to find accommodation...

Timing is important. The work / school year finishes at the end of June and usually doesn't start back up again until the middle of September or beginning of October. Many people are still taking vacations into the second week of September. So October is the first full month back to work and / or school. The best times to come to Madrid to find an accommodation is in November / December once everyone is settled in for the year or July / August while everyone is gone or wants to leave Madrid.  Most landlords will be on vacation for the month of August but will want to try and settle things either before they leave or come back the last week of August to settle things for the new academic year.

Accommodation options for foreigners...

For foreigners coming to Madrid the options really depend on the length of stay and budget for housing. If you have the money, a credit card and know exactly how long you will be here, you can just check a few websites for availability and prices, send a few emails and rent / book an Executive Studio, Apart-Hotel, Hotel, Hostel or University Residence Hall room with little to no trouble at all. If you want a place to stay for 1 to 4 weeks while taking a course, on business or looking for a more permanent place you can check availability of rooms in shared flats (with kitchens) normally used by students at Madrid Rooms for 15 euros a night single / 20 euros a night double.

Longer stays...

If you will be here for a longer stay, visiting, teaching / studying a language or working in Spain and would like to find a room in a shared house, a
studio, or an apartment, here is some good advice:

How to begin...

Start by informing yourself on the "Comunidad de Madrid" including the areas of Madrid and its transportation system before you get here. You should get a map of Madrid and it's surrounding areas and use the Travel section of this website to check out how far everything is from each other and the center (Sol).

Other useful websites...

Next, check out all of the websites that you can for availability, location and pricing of accommodation in Madrid.

Here are some important links:
www.in-madrid.com , www.segundamano.es, www.easypiso.com, www.idealista.com, www.gabinohome.com, www.spainexchange.com, www.tbs.com.es/classifieds, www.loquo.com, www.campusanuncios.com, www.easyroommate.com, www.iagora.com/ihousing/Spain/Madrid/, www.expatriates.com/classifieds/mdr/hs/, www.easyexpat.com/madrid_en/accommodation_rent-house-flat.htm

Warning:
Beware of the all too common bait and switch listings, which offer you deals that are too good to be true, only to get you to contact them and go in to their office, where they put on a show to try and convince you that they are a real agency with an actual housing database. (It is better to make some Spanish speaking friends and have them make a few calls for you).

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Real Estate Agencies

Real Estate agencies will charge you a fee equivalent to one month's rent for their service, which usually is nothing more than unloading an odd property which they have on their books worth 300 euros to 500 euros which they inflate to at least 600 euros in order to make a profit and worthwhile commission.

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Centros de informacion / Oficinas de informacion

Spanish language, pay service, which only provides you with a list of phone numbers (primarily from the "Segundamano" newspaper) to call and make all the arrangements yourself. Prices for these centers begin at 160 euros.

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Accommodation Finding Agencies / Services

These are a new breed of agencies and / or individuals, who help foreigners find places to stay for an administrative and / or finders fee. These fees can be a reasonable, one time payment of 50 euros to 100 euros per person, or a more expensive combination of fee and commission calculated on or up to one month's rent.

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Have your school / employer make the arrangements...

If possible, you should try to make accommodationarrangements through your school or employer. This will save you a lot of time and headaches,considering how self-interested and demanding both Madrid property owners and landlords are.
(You can suggest that they book a No Frills Room for the one week minimum or contact an accommodation finding service and prepare something for you before you get here. This way they will take care of all the necessary arrangements and pay the service fee). Even if your university / employer can not help you find an accommodation, you will still need them to prepare a university certificate / bill and / or a document called a "Nomina" to conduct your search.

Making your own arrangements...

If you can not make any other short term arrangements, you should rent / book a Hostel, Hotel or University Residence Hall over the internet to get you here so you can begin the next phase of your search. You can also book a No Frills single or double rooms in shared flats (with kitchens) in Madrid at Madrid Rooms starting at 15 euros a night for the single and 20 euros for the double (one week minimum stay).
The best resource for accommodation hunting is the daily, pay, Spanish language, newspaper called "Segundamano" (Monday through Friday). It has extensive listings in the Casa Nueva section dedicated to all forms of accommodation. The offers are listed by price range, from lowest to highest, with the last column dedicated to all of the ads with undefined and negotiable prices. Be sure to check them out as they may not necessarily be more expensive and you could actually find some good deals.  The Pisos y Apartamentos section is for your own place and the Huespedes y Casas Compartidos is for rooms in shared flats. As "Segundamano" is the best resource for accommodation finding in Madrid, it is also the number one showcase for all of the scam / con artists like the Centros de informacion (Information Centers), who's ads usually come with a border / frame around them or multiple ads sharing the same contact / phone number and are to be totally ignored / avoided. Publications, Spain Classifieds, etc. Wake up early in the morning and either buy the "Segundamano" while it's fresh off the press (around 6 AM) or go to the nearest Public library and write down all of the contact information for the offers your interested in as soon as they open. Next buy a phone card / SIM card or put credit on your cell phone. Call fixed phone numbers from a fixed phone and a cell phone numbers from a cell phone. Make sure you have your story straight before you call, landlords will ask you all kinds of questions. Be as charming as you possibly can. When you go see a place always dress nice, this is very important in a place like Madrid where it is more important to look good than to feel good. Be sure to have your Nomina and / or university certificate with you to show the property owners. References are also good, especially if they know or heard about who they are from.

Increased demand and the requirements...

Figuring out where each little neighborhood listed in the "Segundamano" is and if the offers still interest you takes a little time. Then once you have finished this you still need to make the phone calls. By the time you call the accommodation may be already taken, or if it's in the center and you're lucky enough to get an appointment, you may find yourself in a line outside with another 20 people just waiting to get inside and be put on an even longer list. (This usually only happens in Sept. Oct. or if the place is really really good). There are also a few challenging things to overcome.  Traditionally the demand for properties in or close to the center is so high in September / October that most landlords go to ridiculous lengths before they will even show you their property. They have so many people calling them for a viewing of their places that they run it like an audition / casting. They set the time they will show it, have everyone line up outside, and then invite people to come in and see it one at a time. Once you see the place and decide you will take it, they begin to ask you all sorts of personal questions about your life, background and work, then tell you, "Don't call us.  We'll make a decision after showing it to everyone else and then call you."  This is if the landlords show up for the appointment at all. Many of them promise to rent the place to someone else and just string you along in case the other person backs out or has problems with their paperwork.  The landlords will never call you to tell you not to waste your time because it has already been rented to someone else. In fact, the only time they tell you that it has been rented / promised to someone else, like "a relative's family member", which is a common lie / excuse, used for the "foreigner" issue, where they try to jack up the price at the last minute saying the newspaper got the price wrong or simply will not rent to you because you're not Spanish. Also, many know that the price / quality of what they are offering is not that good and have to be more selective and take advantage of this high demand to ensure they will choose someone who will at least rent their place until the end of December or June if not longer. They do not want to take a chance that their place will be sitting around empty waiting for the next rush. (If you left around May or June for example, their place might remain vacant until the following September/ October).

Definitions & info.

Nomina / university certificate & deposits:
If the landlord / property owner does not require an aval, then it is usual to pay a one-month deposit. Sometimes when the apartments are furnished you
are asked to pay two months. All deposits are returned at the end of the contract. You will also be asked for a nomina, which is a pay check or an official copy of your contract reflecting that your monthly salary exceeds the amount of monthly rent or if you are studying, a certificate or bill from the university / college.

Aval Bancario: It is very common for landlords / property owners to ask for this when renting an apartment. It is a very complicated process especially if you don't have a Spanish bank account. The bank guarantees that it will pay a year's worth of rent to the landlord / property owner if anything goes wrong with the apartment or if you leave before the end of your contract. You and / or a guarantor (usually a home owner) must prove to the bank that you have the funds / collateral to pay the aval. Only then will the bank approve the aval. This process is not entirely safe and not recommended.

Contract:
Most landlords / property owners will want you to sign a one year contract. Be sure to read the contract carefully since you are a foreigner and some of these people will try to take advantage of you.

Gastos de la Comunidad and bills: You will usually have to pay community fees which are either included in the rent or not, so it is important to ask about the coumunidad, water, and heating. The apartment will either have individual, central or no heating, which means that you might have to pay extra for the heat that you use if it is not included in the community fee, and / or might have to buy your own electric heaters.