How to find an apartment in France
✓ Last verified 13 August 2026
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Two things block newcomers, and neither is the rent. The first is the dossier — the pack of documents you hand over with every application. The second is the garant, a French person who guarantees your rent, which you almost certainly don’t have.
Both are more solvable than they look, because French law is far more on your side here than most landlords let on.
The document list is closed
This is the single most useful thing to know. The law sets an exhaustive list of documents a landlord may ask a prospective tenant for. Anything not on that list is prohibited, and asking for it exposes the landlord to a fine of up to €3,000 — €15,000 if it’s an agency or company.
Your rental dossier — the documents a landlord may legally ask for
- IDENTITY (one): valid ID card, passport or driving licence — French or foreign — or a residence permit
- PROOF OF ADDRESS (one): three recent rent receipts, a landlord's attestation, a host's attestation d'hébergement, an attestation d'élection de domicile, or a property tax notice or title deed
- PROFESSIONAL STATUS (one or more): employment or internship contract, K/K bis extract, artisan registration, INSEE certificate, professional card, or student card or enrolment certificate
- RESOURCES (one or more): last two tax assessments, three recent payslips, company balance sheets, benefit statements, proof of property income, a housing-aid simulation, or a scholarship notice
- FOREIGN DOCUMENTS must be in French, or translated, with amounts converted to euros
- This list is CLOSED — a landlord asking for anything else risks a fine of up to 3,000 EUR, or 15,000 EUR for a company
You need one document from each category — not all of them. And crucially: foreign documents are acceptable. They must be in French or translated, with amounts converted to euros, but a foreign passport, a foreign employment contract and foreign payslips are all valid inputs to a French dossier.
The garant problem, and the free way around it
Most landlords want a caution — someone who pays if you don’t. Traditionally that means a French person with French income, which is exactly what a newcomer lacks.
Visale solves this, and it’s free. Action Logement, a public body, acts as your guarantor. The landlord gets a state-backed guarantee instead of your non-existent French uncle, and you pay nothing.
Since 6 January 2026:
| Who | Condition |
|---|---|
| Under 30 | Eligible whatever your status — student, employee, apprentice, job-seeking |
| 31 and over | Private-sector employee earning ≤ €1,710 net/month |
The rent it will cover, charges included:
| Where | General | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Île-de-France | €1,940 | €1,000 |
| Cities over 100,000, Corsica, DROM | €1,575 | €840 |
| Everywhere else | €1,365 | €680 |
It covers unpaid rent during the first three years of the tenancy. You apply at visale.fr, receive a visa, and give that to the landlord.
There’s a detail in the law that makes this powerful: when your guarantor is Action Logement, the only document the landlord may request is the Visale visa certificate — no payslips, no tax notices, no identity documents for a guarantor who doesn’t exist. It replaces an entire second dossier.
When a landlord may not demand a guarantor at all
If the landlord already holds private insurance against unpaid rent — an assurance loyers impayés — they may only also require a personal guarantor if you are a student or an apprentice. For everyone else, insurance and a guarantor are alternatives, not a stack.
Worth asking directly: “Avez-vous une assurance loyers impayés ?” If the answer is yes and you’re not a student, the guarantor demand isn’t lawful.
If you’re refused because of where you’re from
Refusing a tenant on grounds of origin or nationality is illegal discrimination in France, and it carries criminal penalties for the landlord and for the agency acting on their behalf. It is also common, and rarely stated out loud.
If you believe it happened: keep the written exchanges, note names and dates, and report it to the Défenseur des droits, the independent authority that handles discrimination complaints, free of charge. Testing the same property with a different applicant is what usually turns a suspicion into a case.
Practical order of operations
- Assemble the dossier before you view anything. Good flats go in a day, and the applicant who sends a complete PDF within the hour wins.
- Apply for Visale early — you want the visa in hand when you apply, not promised.
- One PDF, named clearly, in the order above. Agencies process dozens; make yours the easy one.
- Don’t send money before signing. No deposit, no “reservation fee”, no transfer to hold a flat you haven’t visited. Advance-payment fraud targets newcomers specifically, and a request to pay before a signed lease and an état des lieux is the clearest warning sign there is.
Where to look
The main private-listing portals carry most of the market, and agency listings appear on all of them. Two things worth knowing beyond the obvious:
- Social housing (logement social) is not only for French nationals. Legal residence and income below a ceiling are the conditions. Waiting lists are long, so register early even if you don’t expect to need it.
- CROUS housing for students is far cheaper than the private market, and it does not require a guarantor.
Once you have a lease, check whether you qualify for APL housing benefit from CAF — a large share of tenants do, including foreign residents, and it is paid monthly against your rent.