Hello. My son is about to start a year studying at Science Po uni in Bordeaux. It’s his 3rd year of his Uk degree -he has to do a year in France. He has only just got his French student visa ( Brexit!!!) and is sorting out his rental guarantor . He hasn’t yet got accommodation sorted and is due to start his course on 26th August. He is on the waiting list for uni accommodation and is signed up to various websites but it looks like there is little accommodation left. Does anyone have similar experience? Has anyone found any particular websites helpful. Flat share would also be good and in fact as he isn’t a fresher he’s more keen on that. We’re travelling over with him and getting a bit anxious that we’ll have to leave him in a hostel or Airbnb which isn’t a long term option . Any advice /help very gratefully received . Michelle
Hi Michelle.
Welcome to the site 
Accommodation in Bordeaux is unfortunately expensive and relatively sparse compared to other cities. You may want to make sure you’re sat down before you look at rental costs here.
Probably the best place to look is a site called Le Bon Coin (www.leboncoin.fr). It’s a bit like Gumtree in the UK, and Craig’s List in the US. As well as being somewhere to buy & sell all sorts of random stuff, it has a large “immobilier” section, including house and apartment rentals.
However, I seem to remember having difficulty registering an account on Le Bon Coin whilst still living in the UK because it required a French mobile phone number to receive a two-factor authentication code. Hopefully that’s no longer the case.
Two popular sites that are the equivalent to Right Move in the UK are Se Loger (www.seloger.com) and Bien Ici (www.bien-ici.fr). Both cover rentals but I’m not sure these are really tailored for student accommodation.
Another one that springs to mind is a site called Particulier-à-Particulier (www.pap.fr), which unlike Se Loger and Bien Ici is for direct rental via the landlord rather than via an agency. However you may find not all landlords speak English and dare I say the risk of stumbling across a dishonest landlord who’ll take advantage of you not knowing the French laws is higher than if you use an agency.
Are you able to visit the city easily to try the local letting agencies?
I’d recommend him posting to the Bordeaux sub-Reddit too, as there’s often students posting there looking for accommodation.
Bordeaux is an amazing city and I’m sure your son will have a blast once he’s here.
Look in local newspaper ads for accomodation. When my daughter was doing her BTS in the next dept, we found an elderly lady who was letting her ground floor studio flat out for rental in the local press. It was a lovely rental, my daughter stayed there for two years and she had parking right outside the front garden.
Hi Michelle, he could look for groups for students on Instagram or Reddit for example. Look for coloc à Bordeaux. Good luck!
Thank you for your reply Gareth-really helpful. We are going over with him the week before he is due to start at the Uni so if he doesn’t have anything secured by then we will have to either sort out a temp Airbnb or try the local letting agents. He is studying in London in the Uk so the Bordeaux prices don’t look as eye watering as what he’s used to at least!
Thank you for the advice. What a great find for your daughter , I hope we find something similar .
Thanks so much . I’ve found a few new sites via the Instagram route
Hi Gareth . I hope you don’t mind me asking some more questions. Son has registered with lots of sites etc and was contacted by someone in Bordeaux , via a collocation site , about an apartment that has a room to let around the time he needs . It seems a bit too good to be true tbh , both cost and location wise. I’m a bit concerned about scams as we’re doing this from a distance . The guy has offered for him to visit and has offered a virtual tour -but not until a few days after we actually get there . Any advice on things to look out for and what checks we can make to ensure that this is bona fide? Not sure if I’m being overly cautious. Thx
I can’t help with the precise question but you can never be over cautious with online scams as they’re rife, especially in property rentals.
Trust your gut instinct. There’s a lot of demand for accommodation in Bordeaux, and landlords aren’t renowned for charging less than the going rate.
You could call their bluff and ask for the address now, even if the visit isn’t planned for a while. Tell them you know someone who lives in the Médoc and works for a company which, like Sciences Po, is based in Pessac… (if they get suspicious, tell them it’s called the Laboratory of the Future).
Say this friend has offered to take a quick look at the building, the neighbourhood, etc… on his way home when he’s next on campus. If they’re a scammer they’ll be put off by you knowing someone who’s fairly local.
It sounds like it’s not managed via an agency. Does the site you used provide any protection, i.e. does it require users to provide valid id to register, are payments covered by any guarantee, etc…?
Is this other person also a student? If you Google them, do they have any social media accounts that look legit? Can they share the landlord’s contact details?
Has the other person provided any photos of the apartment? If so, does a reverse image search show they’re genuine and in Bordeaux?