How to Find Housing as an International Student
Finding accommodation as an international student. Managing savings, rent, and things to keep in mind while you secure a rental room
As you begin your study abroad journey, one of the key things you’ll need to establish is a place to call home.
Seeking international student housing to study abroad is often a key requirement for most overseas study visas. In some cases, your school of choice might enable you to take up residence on campus. However, you may need to find accommodation close to your campus and sign a private lease if that isn’t the case.
International student housing
Can international students live off-campus?
Whether international students are eligible to live off-campus may depend on your university or school of choice. However, in most instances, universities allow students to pursue living on or off campus as they prefer.
While your preference might be to integrate into campus life by living on your school’s premises, it may be more practical to find private accommodation nearby, especially if you plan (or are able) to travel with your partner and/or children.
If you choose to live off campus and require a visa to begin your studies, you may need to provide proof of accommodation before or after your arrival in your country of study. This can usually be done by supplying a signed lease agreement.
The best place to find housing
While some countries provide a temporary stay visa (which can allow you to visit your university of choice and physically search for student accommodation even before you officially begin your studies), you might instead need to find and secure student accommodation online if this isn’t possible.
To do so, there are many great websites with hundreds of available listings that enable landlords to rent rooms to international students. We’ve spotlighted three websites that work as an international apartment finder that will help you get started:
International apartment rental websites
Disclosure: Prodigy Finance is in no way affiliated with Nestpick, Digsconnect, or AmberStudent and cannot assume any responsibility for leasing disputes.
International roommate finder
If you’d like to find a roommate for the duration of your study period and don’t know anyone at hand who might be able to stay with you, you could instead seek out a potential roommate online.
If you’d like to find another student looking for a room to rent with the view of cohabiting, you’re in luck - there are several websites that help connect students in need of accommodation:
Erasmusu is an online platform where students worldwide can sign up and create their own listings to find a roommate in their country of study. Users are able to search by city for a roommate or can create a profile to tailor their search or criteria.
Room4Talk is another online platform which enables students to seek roommates; Room4Talk enables users to filter potential roommates by their spoken languages and intended city.
Roomster is a platform where landlords can list available properties, and potential tenants can search available accommodation or potentially find other interested students willing to cohabit.
Disclosure: Prodigy Finance is in no way affiliated with Erasmusu, Room4Talk, or Roomster and cannot assume any responsibility for leasing disputes.
What to do when you can't find housing?
If you find yourself unable to secure international student housing before your study period begins, your first step should be to approach your school’s international office or accommodation office.
In many cases, you’ll be required to secure accommodation for travel and Visa application purposes; meaning that if you can’t secure student housing, you may not be able to proceed with your study journey.
Many universities and schools keep an available register of residences and potential accommodation, and in the event that these are fully booked, might also keep a waiting list. Be sure to enquire if you could be added to such a list and determine what your waiting period could be.
Some universities offer financial assistance to enable international students to seek accommodation, and you may wish to explore this as well.
Happy house hunting!
Need funding for your international masters?
Prodigy Finance can help you with that. We provide student loans for an international master's education. We support 850 schools (Graduate Engineering as well as Business schools) in 18 different countries.
If you want to go ahead and know what and where to study, APR, try our Study Centre which is filled with expert opinions on a range of topics like international student's back account, booking flights,after sorting student visa.
For any other information about Prodigy Finance, or our student loan process, required documents, feel free to browse through our site, or register for a webinar to have your questions answered by one of our team.
