An online database to help you find a place to live
© 2016 EPFL / Alain Herzog
EPFL and UNIL manage an online database, for students only, with listings for rooms, apartment shares and studios. The database contained 4,576 ads in 2015.
When you’re a student in Lausanne, finding somewhere to live can be a real challenge. To help deal with the housing shortage, EPFL and UNIL jointly manage an online database that shows housing listings from private individuals in the area. Only university students and PhD candidates can log into this database. With 4,576 ads published last year, this service can be a useful alternative to the student halls.
An average rent of 747 francs
Around two-thirds of the ads are for individual rooms, either in an apartment share or a private home, while the remaining third is made up of studios and apartments. The average monthly rent for a room in 2015 was 747 francs, a figure that goes up a little every year (in 2012 it was 673 francs), while the estimated cost of student housing remains around 600-650 francs per month. EPFL and UNIL actively encourage landlords to keep rents affordable for students.
The ads in the database are mainly for places close to EPFL. In 2015, 1,727 of them were in Lausanne, 313 in Renens, 257 in Ecublens, 242 in St-Sulpice, and the rest in neighboring towns (Morges, Prilly, Pully, etc.).
Most places can be rented for just a few months or for an open-ended period. In 2015, for example, 86% of the ads were for rentals for more than three months. That said, some can be rented for a shorter period of time, often during university breaks.
Online database with the housing listings: www.unil-epfl-logements.ch
The Housing Office can help students and PhD candidates in their search for any type of accommodations. For more information: logement.epfl.ch