Apartment hunting - by Victoria Fontana,
recovered off the hacked forum.
Well, I just went through all that this spring. I found that mostly
there is a great inconsistency between prices and quality. I was
searching to live alone, and only found places for around 600
euros per month, some were decent and others weren’t - they were
horrible. I once found a studio, 17 square meter apartment on
Gran Via for 550 euros! I could cook dinner and shower and watch
my favourite tv show without taking a step!!!
I laughed at the guy, out of disbelief!! I asked him if all
7 dwarfs live here or just "Snoozy". The "caseros" have a lot
of "morro". Nor did it matter where I looked. It used to be
that you didn’t even bother looking for a place in Barrio Salamanca,
because you knew that the prices would be much higher, but now
they are high everywhere. High, relatively we are still in a
capital city and 600 per month isn’t really that bad. I ended
up finding a better deal in the end, through friends, but it’s
only a little studio. You definitely save living with housemates,
if you can handle it, and I found that the best thing to do
is to share with two other people - the larger apartments didn’t
go up so much in price - you get much more for your money and
split 3 ways doesn’t turn out so bad. You can find a very decent
place for 900 euros - with room enough for 3 people and your
cat, and it works out to 300 each. For people just arriving,
I would look for a room to rent - you usually don’t have to
bother with rental agreements and it is much easier to start.
Then after making contacts here, look for something better.
Looking for an apartment: Tell me about it!
I've only been looking for a couple of weeks, but to find something
within my requirements: estudio/piso for around 450 and near
a main train station is almost impossible. I had a very similar
experience to Victoria yesterday, went to see a small flat in
Embajadores, only 360 euros and to be fair the street where
it was located did look quite promising. I didn’t even get as
far as seeing the flat, the nearer I got to the right number,
the more drug addicts, alcoholics and the like started to appear
from the building where I was heading. Needless to say, realising
that it was some kind of drugs den, I turned on my heels and
disappeared sharpish. If this means that I'm going to have to
go back to paying 600 euros for a tiny flat in "el barrio Salamanca"
again, I'll be b@ggered! if you'll excuse my French ... Seems
like I'm going to have to stick to sharing for a while longer.
(recovered off the forum, by dunno)
An apartment searching experience
(A27 - Steven Starry)
A couple of years ago I had to find an apartment in Alcorcón,
a little town on the outskirts of Madrid, for a family member.
The whole process went like this: first my mother-in-law went
around and asked all of her many friends if they knew where
we could find one. (no luck) Then both of us went door-to-door
and from neighbourhood-to-neighbournood asking in each and every
apartment building, real estate agency and bars and shops on
top of it. Finally, we were asking in yet another bar and someone
at the bar having a cup of coffee just happened to be working
on his daughter's apartment upstairs. He looked us up and down
and invited us up to have a look around and you can imagine
the rest. The best part about this story is that we paid 395
euros per month in those days and now 420 for a small three
bedroom apartment about 50 metres from a Metrosur station. The
worst part of this story is that it took us a month-and-a-half
of 3-and-a-half-hours-a-day 5-days-a-week looking at apartments.
What was really incredible is that it seemed like there weren't
any apartments out there at all worth taking or that the prices
of the few apartments that we could find were just simply outrageous.
The average price was over 1,000 euros and the apartments weren't
very nice. In fact, I flat out asked a few of them that if we
took the place, could they please store the furniture elsewhere.
Something else that was surprising was the fact that whenever
we would go to apartments that had been advertised in the paper,
we would find that they had either already rented out the apartment
we wanted to look at or you had to wait in line for your turn
to see the place. Apart from this, there were the many conversations
we had with the doormen of the various apartment buildings we
asked in about how rare it was to see an apartment go up for
rent or about how fast they would go when they did.
It was worth it for me to spend so long looking for an apartment
because, if all goes well, this family member will be there
for a long time and their quality of life and savings account
will and has improved drastically over what they would have
otherwise paid for and gotten.
However, I think we were incredibly determined and, in the end,
lucky. I just don't think I could have done it without my Spanish
mother-in-law's "charming" help. And, frankly, I think
most "guiris" (a Spaniard's word for any Anglo-saxon type foreigner)
just won't have any choice but to pay the much higher rates
prevelant on the market today.
A "rent-a-room" agent
(A28 2005 - Steven Starry)
There's a man in Madrid by the name of Donald Timson-Herranz
who's set up a little niche agency for teachers, students and
other professionals who are looking for a room.
Even after what Victoria and I have written above, you might
wonder why you would need one, but let me tell you, if it'll get
you into a room fast, it'll probably be worth every penny: 90
euros. If you are reading this article and need to rent a room
in Madrid, contact Donald now to get a 20% discount. That is,
72 euros per person / bedroom, but you have to make the payment
in advance and quote "MadridTeacher.com."
Donald says: "The fee covers the convenience and
security of knowing that it is possible you will have a room
for your first night in Madrid and you can avoid wasting money
on hostels and carrying all of your belongings around with you.
You can just show up!"
The story is that over the years this guy has put together a
database of literally thousands of rental room properties which
come onto the market every now and then as their tenants come
and go. Basically, he gets them via e-mail as they come available
and if you use his service, you'll likely beat the classifieds
readers to the punch by at least 24 hours. (It's first-come-first
served in this business I'm afraid.)
This will most certainly be of critical importance if you intend
to arrive in September. According to Donald, 10's of thousands
of students, teachers and other workers usually arrive on the
first of September looking for a room or an apartment leading
to an apartment shortage problem. He says that the early bird
catches the worm in these cases. He recommends arriving even
a few days earlier in August as your chances of landing a nice
room will rise drastically because you won't have much competition
at all.
I can't possibly over-emphasize just how scarce the supply of
these apartments can get. Spaniards generally own their own
apartments (I don't know the exact statistics, but maybe 80%
of them do.) and legislation that favours the tenants' rights
over the landlords' have kept many empty apartments off the
market. On top of it, immigration is way up and Madrid has always
been a top destination for students and English teachers. What's
more is that house prices have doubled and in some cases tripled
over the past 5 or 6 years. This makes the current average room
rental prices of about 340 euros per month understandable. Even
a couple of English teachers who I know have gotten into the
game and rent out a room or two at 400 euros a month plus. (There's
a cheaper one below by the way.)
So, when I got an e-mail from Donald explaining his service, I
dropped by his apartment / office and sat next to him as he deftly
went over his business (databases, apartments, room rentals, etc.)
with me on his computer. Here is most of his letter:
We would like to take this opportunity to present to
you the independent Accommodation Bureau Opening Doors for International
Students and English Teachers in Madrid.
If international students / English teachers are responsible for arranging
their own accommodation in Madrid we may be able to help them. We can make their hunt an easy process as we will search for the housing
that meets their requirements.
a) Shared Apartments
We now hold 3,712 shared flats in our data-base and we advertise
around 10,000 bedrooms in the centre of Madrid every year. We
advertise around 22,000 bed-spaces in central Madrid every year!
We currently hold just over 7,000 properties in our data-base
and most are in the City Centre districts: Centro (2,998), Chamberi
(1,833), and Moncloa (1,028). Rent for individual bedrooms ranges
between 200 and 600 Euros per month depending on the size, quality
and location of the shared flat.
b) Studio Apartments
If they decide to rent a studio, we now have 84 apartments that may
fit their budget. The rent is 600 Euros per month in a studio apartment
in the Alonso Martinez area. It is our cheapest option and the minimum
stay is only one month. They are fully furnished and are ideal for
1 or 2 people. We also recommend that international students / English teachers arrive
in Madrid a few days before their course commences so that they have
time to view properties that are available.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for more details.
Looking forward to being of assistance,
Donald Timson-Herranz B.A. (Hons) International Hospitality Management
P.S. I was born in Norwich, England and have been resident in Spain
since 1985.
Note: We do not own or manage any property, shared flat, studio or
apartment in Madrid; we have no direct interest in anything we advertise.
This means independent guidance with no pressure selling.
There are some other very important points about Donald and his service:
He was featured as a Madrid "Success Story" in the monthly
"In Madrid" in October, 2003.
All or most of the apartments are located in an area which
runs more or less from the center of Madrid at Gran Via north
and west to Cuatro Caminos (see map).
While you might to begin with be interested in an apartment south
of Gran Via, you should reconsider as there is quite a bit more
crime down there and it's safer the farther north and west you go.
(All of the teachers who I know who've been mugged got it South
of that, albeit late at night and not in the day time.)
Donald's database goes pretty deep and you can request special
conditions: i.e. only with guys, girls, g@ys, without familes, etc.
- whatever you like.
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