Just like that, Ashley and I have found an apartment in Lausanne! Crazy, right? At this point there are still some logistical things to finalize, but for all intents and purposes we already know where we will be living next year. We're excited!
We know we'll have to be flexible, but thanks to IMD we were able to find an apartment that meets a lot of the items in our wish list:
- Close to campus? Check!
- Space for a home office? Check!
- Close to a grocery store? Check!
- Laundry in unit? Check!
We even managed to get some "nice to haves" as well:
- Close to metro!
- Charming parquet floors!
- We may even have a "partial lake view!"
I have to say I am so glad to have figured this one out already. I was kind of nervous about the process of finding housing in Lausanne.
When I first started looking for some insight into the Lausanne market, I got a little worried. The price tag looked steep, and there just didn't seem to be a lot of available apartments at any given time. I came across some mildly terrifying quotes like "In Lausanne you don't choose the neighborhood, the neighborhood chooses you!" I was worried we'd end up paying a lot more than we wanted for a crappy place in a poor location.
But kudos to IMD for having a great system to help us find a place!
IMD works with a company that has an inventory of apartments which they turn over from class to class each year. When the student portal opened up at the end of May, all the apartments were listed and the students were able to look through pictures and descriptions, and reserve the one they liked - literally with the click of a button.
IMD also provided the contact information for the current student living in each apartment at the moment, so we could reach out and ask questions if we had any. Very thoughtful of IMD to include that info. And once again, I must say I was impressed by how warm and helpful the current students/partners were when we reached out! Their input really helped us feel confident we were making the right choice.
I was pretty happy with the range of available places too. Different sizes, some very close to IMD, some a little farther away. Some recommended for families, some recommended for sharing/roommates. There was a good price range, and the prices were competitive. Detfinitely not cheap, but I doubt we would have been able to find anything even close if we tried to find something on our own.
Apartments are chosen on a first-come first-served system. This is a whole new reason I am so happy I applied in round 1! We were fortunate we had practically the entire inventory to choose from.
Thank goodness our apartment search was a brief one. I just hope having a place already picked out won't disqualify us from being on "House Hunters International!"
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