Housing in Nancy
No matter where you stay, all students are eligible for monetary assistance to pay for housing. It usually comes up to 200 Euro a month, and retroactively covers previous months of rent so make sure to work on this!
If you are sharing a house or apartment with a group of students, all members of the group may apply for assistance, provided their names appear on the rental contract (lease). Each student must apply individually. Married couples submit just one application.
Applications for assistance must be completed on the Web site of the family assistance fund (CAF, Caisse d'allocation familiale) within 3 months of taking possession of your lodgings.
Student Housing
Students will usually be put in 3 Rue Mademoiselle CS 5217 54052 NANCY CEDEX. The original cost is 400 Euro a month, but CAF can help you with that. You have a private shower and bathroom and a very minimal kitchen. Parties are not allowed, and the Internet is heavily Firewalled leading previous Fusioneers to either buy their own private Internet subscription or use a Tor Network to tunnel through the firewall. It should be noted that previous Fusioneers recommend Free for phone service, but NOT for an Internet subscription
The building is notorious among Fusioneers for it's "insane asylum feel."
Private Market
Apartments in Nancy are generally cheaper then the student housing, but can be a major hassle if you want to rent an apartment directly rather then sublease one. Either way a Guarantor is generally required to rent an apartment on the private market. The Guarantor must be living in France and agree to pay your rent in case you do not cover it. This requirement can often be waived for sub-leasers by agreeing to an additional safety deposit of a months rent.
The best website for finding housing yourself is: LeBonCoin When searching through it remember that the the postal code to Nancy is 54000.
The housing codes (T2 T3 F2 F3...) that you will see while walking around can be understood as follows. T stands for "type" (apartment) while F stands for "foyer" (house) and the number after (T/F) refers to the number of rooms. The only difference in practice seems to be that the kitchen is a bar-like for "T" and for "F" its a proper kitchen. The letters are used sloppily however, and the only importance is the numbers, which tell you how many rooms the apartment has.
If you intend to rent a room yourself (with friends for instance) then you have the option of going through an agency. An agency will usually take the cost of the first months rent as a fee, but they have access to many apartments that you can't look at via LeBonCoin. Agencies are marked as "Immobliers". For either an Agency or a direct arrangement speaking French or dragging around a French speaking friend is a necessity. In the experience of students Agencies are fairly useful, but very slow. You should plan on them taking two to three weeks between the start of the contract process and the end of it. If you do not have a Guarantor living in France you will have to find a special Agency that deals with foreigners.
Either through an agency, or private market, if you are not subleasing you will have to set up electricity from the EDF and gas from the GDF. You will also have to acquire renters insurance which should cost roughly 80 Euro for the year. Internet providers for your apartment are plenty, but FREE is NOT recommended, though their phone plans are very good. Numericable has fiber-optic lines through some of Nancy, and are very quick to install your Internet, sometimes offering it same day.
