On Finding a Place

Written: 2025-08-05

I don't know which deity or spirit we got favours from, but there's not enough thanks I can give them for this!

Yesterday, we officially moved to our new place!

This marked the end of our "moving period", which started a bit over two months ago, when we left our old place on the other side of the Atlantic. Two months of residence limbo, staying with relatives as we applied for hundreds of places, invited to visit for a dozens of them only, only to be told we didn't meet the requirements.

Turns out, unsurprisingly, moving countries makes it extra difficult to find a place to rent at reasonable prices - even if you're returning to your home country with a job contract in hand. Because the renting market is so tight here (let's be honest, it's a full blown housing crisis), landlords can ask so much from the renter: making 3-6 times the rent per month, passing your probation period, full-time indefinite contract, no debt, etc... all the while ignoring your high savings or willing guarantors by your side. All for a shitty studio in a sketchy part of town, with premium rent and fees galore (and it's utility exclusive).

We knew it would be tough, from personal experience years prior, and friends currently looking. So we started looking for a place as soon as we were sure enough the job was secure (the contract wasn't signed just yet). We were a few months removed from returning home, and already we'd apply to a few apartments a day.

Not much came out of it*. Which in hindsight wasn't too surprising. Even with "proper" documentation shared and truly local names, us having international numbers sent alarm bells - they more likely took us for scammers than real applicants. We even got berated for wasting their time, because we'd clearly used ChatGPT to write in the local language, even though one of us is native, as our application showed. It was incredibly frustrating at the time.

Things got somewhat better when we landed and registered back state-side. Getting a local number helped tremendously (we could also call now). We got more call backs for viewings and felt like we had a fairer chance* at finding something.

And then, we... essentially lucked out with this place.

It checked all our boxes: in the city we work, in a residential neighbourhood but still close enough to both the city center and work, supermarkets by walking (or biking) distance, easy to access and with the ability to park a car. It was maybe a bit small, had little outside space, and the appliances were definitely tinier than what we hoped, but those were definitely concessions we were glad to make.

We applied, my partner went to visit (I couldn't make it) and... we didn't hold our breath on it. We had gotten so many rejections for places worse than this one, both in state and location. We even doubted on even visiting it in the first place, it felt completely out of our reach - even if we met the renting conditions.

Then... returning from visiting a different place, we got two calls. First from a previously visited apartment, telling us we didn't get it* (which was a bummer, because that one was really nice even if in another city - on the top of the best spots we visited). Then, the call for our current place came in.

We weren't even the first application chosen, we were told, but that person had found something else in the meantime. So they went back to the files, and the randomizer told them to call us next. And that if we were still interested in the place, we had to meet the following day, a few towns over, to sign the contract - or we'd lose our spot.

I signed the contract without having step foot* in the apartment (until I got the key). It seemed too good to be true, but I wasn't going to pass this chance either. After so many rejections...

As the ink dried and copies of the contract printed, our landlord coyly asked us to guess the number of applicants for this place. Now, we knew the market was competitive - we'd started looking for a places months before we left our old place, without much success - and finding a place in a university town is like a cherry on a difficulty sunday.

My partner guessed in the 20-ies, as it had been what we'd been told with other apartments we'd applied to. I misunderstood the question (thinking he asked how many places we had applied to) and said 40-something (the amount of applications I remembered us doing), because of the location. It turned out to be 90+*.

I cried of relief when we left. I bawled when we got the keys a few weeks later. And I've been sitting here, in my new living room, in disbelief ever since.