Expat Tips: How to Rent an Apartment in Lausanne!

Expats in Lausanne often have a hard time finding an apartment to rent. If you don’t speak French and don’t know Lausanne and Switzerland very well it is a challenge for an expat to rent an apartment in Lausanne. Here are three tips which should make the aparment search easier.

As the real estate market in lausanne is quite competitive, it is important to be quick. Check all the relevant housing platforms (like flatsforexpats.com) on a daily base and contact current tenants and real estate agencies immediately. As there is much more demand than apartment and room offers in Lausanne, a lot of flats are not even published or if they are, only for a short time. Don’t miss them!

As you have to contact a lot of people who are renting out apartments, it is tempting to just write a very short and quick message. However, it is important to address a tenant or real estate agency in formal and polite way. These people get lots of messages and calls everyday and many of them use the contact message they get as a criteria to preselect prospective tenants. Address with name, write something about yourself, tell why you want to rent the apartment in question and ask if you could see the flat.

Ideally you attach an application file with all the info about you as a possible tenant to the contact email already. Leave no doubt that you are an unproblematic tenant. Some expats only attach a “Betreibungsregisterauszug” and the application form which are usually provided by the agencies. However, it makes sense to give the real estate agency or tenant more info about you. You can be different from other applicants, if you attach an introduction letter, a cv, a work contract and some references from former tenants and/or from work.

It makes it easier to rent your aparment from another expat. The offers on flatsforexpats.com are from other expats in Lausanne who publish their ad exclusively on flatsforexpats.com in order to give other expats the chance to rent it. Check it out!