How Difficult It Is to Rent an Apartment

Most likely everyone has an idea of how hard it is these days to rent an apartment. Perhaps most people have never had to look for a place to rent, but nevertheless, everyone has heard about the problems that arise. Even people who have their own housing sometimes have to look for a rental apartment. For example, they move to another city to work for a few months. There can be many reasons, but in any case the search is nothing but hassle and trouble.

Let's put it this way: each category of citizens has its own difficulties. Of course, there are practically no difficulties for those who don’t count their money. But for a student studying at a metropolitan institute, renting an apartment in Moscow is an unimaginable luxury. For example, the rent for a single small room can easily be higher than the average salary in some provincial town. Whatever you say, money has always been and remains a pressing issue. After all, living in a rented apartment is for those who can afford to pay for it. Those who don’t have money, in most cases, have to make do with cheaper options — say, a bed in a dormitory or housing outside the city limits.

A high rent is very easy to explain. If a person needs a separate apartment in a good neighborhood and cannot afford to spend time commuting to work, then time is more valuable to them than money. And most likely their income level allows them to pay as much as needed for the extras. Most often that’s the case. Quite a lot of people go to the capital to earn money. After all, even after subtracting the costs to rent an apartment in Moscow, the salary is several times higher than in their home city.

And such interest in working in the capital leads to the fact that renting an apartment becomes problematic not so much because of the high price as because of the lack of available space. In principle, the main task turns out not to be finding the money, but selecting a rental apartment.

Traditionally, there are many methods. For example, walking around the neighborhood you like, posting little slips with tear-off phone numbers on lamp posts and at building entrances. Everyone knows those boilerplate ads about a young Russian family wanting to rent an apartment, guaranteeing cleanliness and timely payment. Or simply “URGENT! Will rent an apartment in this area.”

Frankly, it’s a very unreliable way to find landlords. Everyone promises the same thing. And apartment owners need more convincing arguments than promises written on a scrap of paper.

Another method is searching through acquaintances. Well, that works only if you have them — and a lot of them. Unfortunately, that’s not the case when you have to arrive in a completely unfamiliar city.

Newspapers continue to be fairly popular. There are always plenty of ads in them, but not much use. Very often the information is either outdated or outright false. And again, ads for renting out apartments are mostly posted by intermediaries, that is, the same real estate agencies.

For certain reasons, our compatriots do not like to turn to agencies for help. Often the result is that if any disagreements arise, it is hard to resolve the dispute. And again, it is very difficult to look for suitable housing while being in another city.

Fortunately, these days some agencies do pay attention to Internet technologies. For example, on the website http://toparenda.ru you can rent an apartment in Moscow without leaving your computer. A practical internal search system, several ways to get in touch, regular data updates — all this saves a lot of time. In the end, everyone benefits. Both those who want to rent an apartment, and those who need to rent it out.