# RENTING an Apartment in Madrid questions



## kck6vb (Jun 12, 2010)

Hello. I am moving to Madrid with my husband on July 1. I plan to stay in a short term holiday apartment until we find a permanent apartment.

• Do you have any general advice for getting an apartment in Madrid?

• Is it reasonable to expect to be able to find a furnished apartment and move in with internet on within 5 days? 

•*Are the prices I see online (on sites such as loquo and idealista) the price I should expect to pay or is it expected that I negotiate a lower price?

• Should I try to rent from an owner or go through an agency?

• Is there any documents or other requirements I'll need to rent an apartment?

• Is showing them my USA bank account balance enough for proving sufficient funds since I won't have a Spanish bank account yet?

• Am I forgetting any important questions? THANKS!


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Hi there,
I'm the only one posting from the Madrid area at the moment. These two threads kind of sum it up in case you haven't already found them.

http://www.expatforum.com/expats/sp...ain/47780-your-assessment-madrid-rentals.html

http://www.expatforum.com/expats/spain-expat-forum-expats-living-spain/49311-madrid-area.html

You might as well try negotiating. In general prices in Spain are coming down, but i don't know if that applies to Madrid. If you speak Spanish you might want to go directly to an owner. If not you might be safer with an agency. There are lots of English speaking ones in Madrid.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

And here's another
http://www.expatforum.com/expats/sp...living-spain/45506-best-area-live-madrid.html


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## seh2000 (Jun 28, 2010)

Hello Pesky!

Sorry to "steal" the thread...but I am sort of in same situation as kck...

We (dad (EU citizen), mom (Venezuela) and son 5 y (EU and Venezuela) are to come to Madrid mid end July 2010. Currently we live in Venezuela, but I got a job in Spain. I will not be an expat in form of employment, but seen as an Spanish employee. Company located in Las Tablas so we plan to live nearby - or?
We will not relocate our personal stuff as we keep our house in Barcelona.

We are not too sure to initial to stay in hotel type long term and/or aprt hotel or try to find a flat immediately after we arrive. (guess stay in hotel for some time then go for flat - or)
What you recommend?
Wife speak fluent Spanish (son) too but not me, so we plan to have wife to speak with owners or maybe with real estate agents any recommendations here?

Our other worry is in relation to taxes/ cost of living, but I guess we will find out when we arrive - or you have some recommendations? 

Saludos Steen


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

seh2000 said:


> Hello Pesky!
> 
> Sorry to "steal" the thread...but I am sort of in same situation as kck...
> 
> ...


Hi Steen,
You can contribute to any thread, especially when the op hasn't got back!

IMO... I don't like the area around Las Tablas much. Loads of building has been going on around there in the last twenty years and it's just urban sprawl from what I can see. And I like the countryside in other areas more too. Having said that I'm sure there will be nice areas within the built up areas as most of the time the Spanish are good about putting green areas in and many areas out there are very residencial and family orientated. 
It would make sense to live near your place of work, so why don't you try renting in the Las Tablas area and see how it goes, see if it's liveable. The only problem is deciding where your son's going to go to school. However, as you've missed the registration date, and you won't be able to do anything until September, you've got some of July and all of August to make up your minds. I would get in touch with an agency, English speaking or Spanish, (there are plenty) as you'll need to get started pretty quickly.
Children don't have to start school until they are 6, but in practice many start at 2 and if not at 3.
Good luck,
I don't envy you looking for a house in August. Sorry I don't have any more specific info for you. 
Search Madrid on the forum too.

PS I just remembered this too. It's a service run by the town hall (ayuntamiento) in Madrid putting in touch house owners and renters. As it's done through the town hall everything is above board and legal. It would be a good idea to go there first and tell them your story!
http://www.madrid.es/portal/site/mu...toid=00899ad016e07010VgnVCM100000dc0ca8c0RCRD


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## seh2000 (Jun 28, 2010)

Much appreciated!
I like like you countryside, but wife is more for city areas.
But - I guess you have the reason we should try out and see, but the main issues is school for our son. Here he is to start 1 grade in September, so we guess same for Spain. So the issue will be to find a school that will accept him, so maybe better to work the other way. Find school then housing and in the meantime use a cheap hotel - maybe?
Your idea about service run by the town hall (ayuntamiento) sounds great. 
Spanish not an issue for the wife, well she and our son speaks of cause Latin Spanish, so not all words are same or have the same meaning. Believe here we say Alcaldia for the town hall  

Saludos


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

seh2000 said:


> Much appreciated!
> I like like you countryside, but wife is more for city areas.
> But - I guess you have the reason we should try out and see, but the main issues is school for our son. Here he is to start 1 grade in September, so we guess same for Spain. So the issue will be to find a school that will accept him, so maybe better to work the other way. Find school then housing and in the meantime use a cheap hotel - maybe?
> Your idea about service run by the town hall (ayuntamiento) sounds great.
> ...


Yes, that's what I mean. You'll have to think about the school your son can go to, but the schools are closed now until the beginning of Sept, so you can only look at the outside of the school. 
Actually, thinking about it, a lot of schools will be open during the summer for summer school activities. These are run by companies that have nothing to do with the school, and not all of the children in the summer activity programme are students in that school, but it may be worth while trying to talk to some of the parents and drop off or pick up time. You won't see any of the teaching staff around though!
No problem with Latino Spanish. It's like American and British English - we understand each other most of the time. Also there's a big Latin population in Madrid. I have Venezuelan and Peruvian students (I'm an English teacher) and my daughter has Ecuadorian and Colombian friends.


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## seh2000 (Jun 28, 2010)

Cool, then maybe you could introduce my wife to your students from Venezuela. Og cause I do not know if your students are adults or kids, but if adults then it could be good for them to share experiences. My wife is not new to the expat life as we lived years in Ireland and Nigeria.
My wife is from Barcelona where we also live, just outside the Venezuelan vacation town Lecheria.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

seh2000 said:


> Cool, then maybe you could introduce my wife to your students from Venezuela. Og cause I do not know if your students are adults or kids, but if adults then it could be good for them to share experiences. My wife is not new to the expat life as we lived years in Ireland and Nigeria.
> My wife is from Barcelona where we also live, just outside the Venezuelan vacation town Lecheria.


Possibly, however they live in Collado Mediano, about 40km outside of Madrid an I see them at work in Las Rozas 20km outside of Madrid... But anything is possible!
Sounds like living in Madrid is not going to be too much of a change for you, but Madrid is quite different to Barca I believe.
Keep us posted about how things are going. Where are you going to be working? There's a huge telefonica central offices building in Las Tablas where thousands of people work


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