Spanish Sky Line

Moving to  different city or even country can be a very daunting experience. About two months ago, my boyfriend and I were considering where to move to. We had come to Europe from Canada and were planning our next step. Finally we decided it would be either Hong Kong and Barcelona.

Since we are both European citizens and already in Europe, we decided that Barcelona would be the best choice and began to look for apartments in the city. Having never visited Barcelona before, and having a limited amount of time to move, the whole process was a bit of a nightmare. During our initial apartment hunt, we lost count of how many e-mails we received back from sites like Craigslist and Loquo (Spanish Craigslist) that were fraudulent. With the popularity of websites like these, it is not at all surprising that there are so many people posting fraudulent links for apartments that sometimes are not even their own. Included in every email was a giant form to be filled out with all of your personal information and a request for you to transfer money to them. The format and tone of the e-mails were all exactly the same: a family of Christian missionaries going to Africa, a family of Christian missionaries going to Africa while the wife was in the USA having a neurological procedure performed, a Christian family moving to Africa to work for BP. In several instances the signatures on the e-mails were the same – despite the senders’ email address being different and it being for a different apartment. Also, all of the advertisements they posted had very low prices. When it comes to looking for an apartment, more often than not, if something looks too good to be true, then it probably is! Look out for pictures that you may have already seen, and prices that are too low for the area. You really have to do your research, since sometimes you cannot physically be in the place where you are trying to find an apartment.

Due to my complete lack of faith in mankind after looking for an apartment on these websites, we decided to go with a rental agency. Of course this was a more costly way to go, but it made our apartment search a lot less stressful. Depending on the agent, you will be required to pay an agency fee (this can be anywhere between 1-3 months of rent), plus the deposit (which is 1-2 months rent) in addition to the first month of rent. So be prepared to fork out a fair amount of money in your first month in your new apartment! Make sure all of these things are made COMPLETELY clear to you before signing the lease.

The apartment that we chose and are currently living in is intended for short-term accommodation, so everything is provided for and included in the rental price. The agent did advise that if we found that a “necessity” was missing, we would be reimbursed for that item should we go out and buy it. Subsequently we went out and got ourselves a small juicer. Our agent’s generosity did not extend to an upgrade of the 1980’s TV to a nice LCD TV – we did ask!

Also, it is important to find out who is responsible for repairs within the apartment. Does the agent find someone to come to the apartment to fix it? Do you contact the landlord directly? Do you call someone to come to fix the problem yourself? Make sure you get after-hours numbers for whoever is responsible for repairs – you don’t want to be stuck at 3 am with a leaky ceiling or a funny smell of undetermined origins and have no-one answering your calls.

Finally, get to know the area and it’s facilities. For example, if your future apartment is unfurnished and there are no laundry facilities in the building, find out where the nearest laundromat is – you don’t want to be lugging piles of laundry for 10 blocks. Other useful things to have nearby would be grocery stores, markets, subway stations and bus stops. We looked at several apartments that overlooked Plazas, and during the day they are very beautiful, quiet and seemingly idyllic places to live, but during the night – and not only on the weekends – stages will be erected, bands will play their music, stands will line the streets and lights will flash – and you won’t get any sleep.

One thing that really helped us was to go onto forums. Ex-pat forums are often very helpful in letting you know about certain areas from the point of view of people who have lived there for a period of time. For a big city like Barcelona this was great because each district has it’s own characteristics and attracts different types of people. As with any tourist city, there is a lot of crime: pick-pocketing and purse grabbing are very common. Our apartment is very close to the Arc du Triomf, and  unfortunately this area seems to be purse-grabbing central. But thankfully, we won’t be living in this apartment for too long, and are now trying to decide which district would be the best, or if we should pick another country!

I think the main thing to remember is to do your homework, you can never do enough research. And don’t be too trusting. If you have a vibe that something is not as it should be, then you’re probably right!