If you have not yet been admitted at EPFL or do not have your personal access yet, please refer to the procedure below.
If you have already been admitted at EPFL, you can access directly to the UNIL-EPFL housing portal as it is reserved for the admitted Bachelor, Master and PhD students who have already received their GASPAR account (EPFL credentials).
If you have another status and cannot access the platform online, please refer to one the procedures hereafter.
Please note that the majority of apartments / studios in the UNIL-EPFL platform are managed by real estate agencies and not by the contact person who published the advertisement. This is the current tenant who has to hand over his lease and who is in charge of making the visits of the apartment and provide the agency with a few files of solvent applicants. So you will always be confronted with the constraints imposed by real estate agencies.
An average commuting time of 30 min from your housing to EPFL corresponds to the current situation in the area.
You can calculate your commuting time accurately via the CFF website.
Do not be too restrictive in your search criteria.
As soon as you visit a place that suits you, tell the landlord you’re interested as soon as possible.
Sign a lease/sub-lease contract for the room with your landlord. If he/she doesn’t have any, we have some lease examples available on our website. These templates are only given as examples and have no legal value. They can be adapted to each person’s needs.
It is recommended to contract a household insurance and a third party liability insurance. These insurances cover some damages.
This housing portal gathers all the ads coming from private landlords as well as students offering rooms or wishing to find someone to take over their lease in order to find a new tenant for the flat.
The current housing situation in the region makes it extremely difficult to rent from real estate agencies, particularly for foreigners without a Swiss employment contract. This is why we strongly recommend you to guide your search first to renting a room.
If you are have applied or are admitted to EPFL and do not have your personal accesses yet, we will gladly send you a temporary link to consult all the housing offers extracted from our UNIL-EPFL advertisement portal (PDF lists). To do so, please send us an email with the following information:
- Name / Surname
- Birth date
- Start date of your studies at EPFL
- Planned curriculum (Bachelor, Master, échange, etc.)
If you are admitted to EPFL and you already have received your GASPAR account (EPFL credentials) you can directly access the UNIL-EPFL housing portal.
Advice:
We advise all students not to look for apartments or studios but only for rooms (or flatsharings). Flat hunting is long and fairly complicated in the region.
Do not look for accommodation by location because you may miss out on an interesting announcement, which ultimately is not too far from the EPFL campus. Use the CFF webpage to help you in your calculation of commuting times.
The best search order is as follows :
- Sort by “latest published”.
- Look at the availability dates.
- Look at the rent compared to your budget.
- Open the ad (before watching the locality) regardless of the words “dependent, independent, roommate”.
- If the ad suits you, look at the address and create your itinerary with the CFF webpage knowing that the walking time mentioned on this site is always longer than the reality.
- If the commuting time suits you, and the announcer mentioned a phone number, it is recommended to call in order for contact to be made more quickly.
If you are have applied or are admitted to EPFL and do not have your personal accesses yet, we will gladly send you a temporary link to consult all the housing offers extracted from our UNIL-EPFL advertisement portal (PDF lists). To do so, please send us an email with the following information:
- Name / Surname
- Birth date
- Start date of your studies at EPFL
- The name of the Lab and of the secretary whom you are in contact with
- Your EPFL working contract or EPFL work offer
If you are admitted to EPFL and you already have received your GASPAR account (EPFL credentials) you can directly access the UNIL-EPFL housing portal.
Advice:
We advise all PhD students not to look for apartments or studios but only for rooms (or flatsharings). Flat hunting is long and fairly complicated in the region.
Do not filter by location because you may miss out on an interesting ad, which ultimately is not too far from the EPFL campus. Use the CFF webpage to help you in your calculation of commuting times.
The best search order is as follows :
- Sort by “latest published”.
- Look at the availability dates.
- Look at the rent compared to your budget.
- Open the ad (before watching the locality) regardless of the words “dependent, independent, roommate”.
- If the ad suits you, look at the address and create your itinerary with the CFF webpage knowing that the walking time mentioned on this site is always longer than the reality.
- If the commuting time suits you, and the announcer mentioned a phone number, it is recommended to call in order for contact to be made more quickly.
Depending on your date of arrival in Switzerland, we can gladly send you a temporary link to consult all the housing offers extracted from our UNIL-EPFL advertisement portal (PDF lists). To do so, please send us an email with the following information:
- Name / Surname
- Birth date
- The exact dates of your internship
- The name of the Lab and of the secretary whom you are in contact with
- Your EPFL working contract or EPFL work offer
In order to receive information as well as useful links to your accommodation search, please send us an email with the following information :
- Name / Surname
- Birth date
- Start date at EPFL
- The name of the Lab and of the secretary whom you are in contact with
- Your EPFL working contract or EPFL work offer