Student Housing Paris
FR All residences
Guide

Finding student housing
in Paris

Everything you need to know: housing types, budget, housing benefit, paperwork, and the mistakes to avoid. Written for students arriving in Paris from elsewhere in France or from abroad.

Written for international & French students By the editorial team

In this guide

1. Types of student housing in Paris

In Paris and the wider Île-de-France region, students typically choose between four housing types, each with its own trade-offs.

1 Private student residences

The most complete option: furnished studio, bills included (water, electricity, fibre), security, shared spaces. From €651/month, all-inclusive, in the Paris region. Well suited to a first year or a short programme. This site presents 9 residences of this type.

✓ All-inclusive ✓ APL-eligible ✓ No waiting list

2 CROUS student halls

The cheapest option (€200-500/month), but places are extremely scarce and allocated on financial-need criteria via Parcoursup or Mon Master. Waiting and uncertainty are the main drawbacks — and international exchange students should check their university's own CROUS quota separately.

✓ Very low price × Very few places × Strict eligibility criteria

3 Flatsharing (colocation)

Sharing a two- or three-room flat between students. Budget per person: €500-700/month inside Paris, €400-600 in the suburbs. Sociable, but the search takes longer and involves compromise with flatmates.

✓ Social life ~ Availability varies

4 Independent studio (open market)

The most common option but also the most expensive and competitive. Inside Paris: €900-1,500/month for a 20-30m² studio. Agency fees (one month's rent) and a deposit (two months) are added on top. Applications are often demanding, and harder to complete from abroad without a French bank account or payslips.

× High cost in Paris × Agency fees

2. Student housing budget in Paris in 2026

Rent typically accounts for 50-60% of a student's monthly budget. Here are the price ranges by housing type.

Housing type Zone Monthly price Bills
Student residence (this network) Île-de-France €651 – 760 Included
CROUS student halls Paris / Île-de-France €200 – 500 Included
Independent studio Inside Paris €900 – 1,500 Extra (~€100)
Flatshare (per room) Paris / near suburbs €450 – 750 Varies

After housing benefit: what do you actually pay?

For a €676/month studio in this network, APL can be worth €150-250/month. Real out-of-pocket cost: €400-520/month. Estimate your own APL with our rent calculator, or the official simulator on caf.fr.

3. Inside Paris or just outside it: the real trade-off

This is the decision that affects your budget and daily life more than any other, and most students get it backwards: they search "in Paris" first, then widen the search once the prices discourage them. The right question isn't "inside Paris or not" — it's how many minutes from my campus, and for how much.

Criterion Inside Paris Just outside Paris
Studio rent€850-1,200, often excluding bills€651-760, bills included
Bills€50-90/month extraincluded (water, electricity, heating, fibre)
Sizeoften 9-18m²bigger studios, two- and three-room units possible
Availabilityvery tight, decide fastmore relaxed through June
Commute to north/east campus30-50 min from the centre5-15 min
Commute to a central campus5-20 min25-40 min
Neighbourhood lifedense, walkable nightlifequieter, transit-based

The thing almost everyone gets wrong: your classes probably aren't where you'd assume. Paris 8 is in Saint-Denis, Sorbonne Paris Nord teaches in Villetaneuse and Bobigny, Campus Condorcet is in Aubervilliers, Paris Nanterre is in the Hauts-de-Seine, UPEC is in Créteil. For these universities, housing "inside Paris" makes your commute longer and more expensive. University-by-university detail.

Over a ten-month academic year the gap runs €3,000 to €6,000 depending on which arrondissement you're comparing against, housing benefit already deducted on both sides. Set against that: a single Imagine R transit pass covers the whole region, and 10-25 extra minutes of commute if your campus is genuinely inside Paris. Run the numbers for your case.

4. Paris, neighbourhood by neighbourhood

Paris is divided into 20 numbered districts, called arrondissements, spiralling outward from the centre. The rents below are market ranges for a furnished 18-25m² studio, gathered from public listings, excluding bills. They vary a lot by street and season.

Latin Quarter: 5th & 6th

€900 to 1,600

Sorbonne University, École Normale Supérieure, Jussieu, Assas, Sciences Po all within walking distance. This is the historic student quarter, and the most sought-after and most expensive per square metre in France. Studios under €900 are rare and go within hours. Worth targeting if you're eligible for CROUS housing here, or if your budget is above €1,000.

North-east: 10th, 18th, 19th, 20th

€800 to 1,050

The most affordable part of Paris, and the liveliest student scene outside the Latin Quarter: Belleville, Ménilmontant, La Villette, Canal Saint-Martin. Also the best connected to the northern suburbs, making it the strongest compromise if your classes are in Saint-Denis, Bobigny or Aubervilliers. Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est put the RER D and RER E within easy reach.

East: 11th & 12th

€850 to 1,100

Bastille, Nation, Bercy, Gare de Lyon. Well connected, lively in the evenings, and still accessible around Daumesnil and Bel-Air. The RER A puts Nanterre and Marne-la-Vallée within reach. Home to INALCO and several private schools.

South: 13th & 14th

€850 to 1,200

The 13th holds one of the largest university clusters inside Paris: Tolbiac, the Grands Moulins campus of Université Paris Cité, INALCO. It's also the arrondissement with the most CROUS housing, so the first place to look if you're eligible. The 14th hosts the Cité Internationale Universitaire, France's largest student housing complex, whose international-student applications run partly outside the standard DSE process and are worth applying to early.

West: 15th, 16th, 17th

€850 to 1,700

The 15th is Paris's most populous arrondissement and its rental market is more fluid than elsewhere in the west: studios around €850 can still be found near Convention or Vaugirard. The 16th (Dauphine) and 17th are significantly pricier, with peaks above €1,500.

Centre: 1st to 4th

€1,000 to 1,700

Le Marais, Châtelet, Les Halles, Île de la Cité. Very little student housing stock, tiny floor areas, and the highest per-square-metre prices in the capital. Unless you have a specific reason to be here, this isn't where to look for your first student home.

5. The inner suburbs, town by town

The rents below are for the student residences featured on this site, bills included. Commute times are door-to-door estimates at weekday morning peak.

Saint-Denis (93) · metro 13

€760 · 12 min from Paris

The best-equipped town of the six: Université Paris 8 is right there, Campus Condorcet is a quarter of an hour away, plus the basilica, one of the largest markets in Île-de-France, and the Stade de France. It's also the closest to Paris, which explains why it's the priciest of the six. So Campus.

Bobigny (93) · metro 5 and tramway T1

€676 to 700 · 20-22 min

Three residences on line 5, five minutes from the Sorbonne Paris Nord health campus and its IUT. This is where the network's lowest rent is, and, with Bezons, the only place with three-room units. Prefecture, shopping centre, Canal de l'Ourcq for running. Campus Lola · Le Twins · Stud en Ville

Pierrefitte-sur-Seine (93) · RER D and tramway T11

€662 to 684 · 18-20 min

The northern university corridor: the Villetaneuse campus is next door, Paris 8 about ten minutes away. Quiet residential setting, close to Parc départemental Georges-Valbon. Also home to the network's only A-rated building for energy efficiency. Campus Lena · Green Fabrik

Noisy-le-Sec (93) · RER E

€651 · 15 min

The most direct link to central Paris in the whole network: Magenta and Gare du Nord in fifteen minutes, Haussmann-Saint-Lazare in twenty, no change. Useful if your classes are in the 8th, 9th or 10th arrondissement. Tramway T1 also opens up the RER A to the east. Campus Salto.

Chevilly-Larue (94) · tramway T7

€688 · 25 min

The only address facing south, and so the only one that makes sense if your classes are at UPEC, the Gustave Roussy institute in Villejuif, or a Paris-Saclay site. T7 connects to metro line 7 at Villejuif: expect one change for most trips into Paris. Campus Victoria.

Bezons (95) · tramway T2

€757 · 20 min

The only one facing west. T2 has its terminus here and runs to La Défense then Porte de Versailles with no change — the address to remember for Paris Nanterre, an internship at La Défense, or a campus in the 15th. Residential setting, on the Seine. Nouvelle Seine.

Towns we don't cover. Villetaneuse, Aubervilliers, Créteil, Nanterre, Cachan and Villejuif all host major campuses but none of our residences. For those areas, check CROUS housing first, often located directly on the teaching sites, then private operators and flatsharing.

6. Understanding commute times

A "twenty-minute" commute can be perfectly comfortable or genuinely draining depending on how those twenty minutes are made up. Four factors matter far more than raw distance.

  1. 1. Number of changes

    The single biggest factor. A direct 25-minute ride is more restful and, crucially, more reliable than an 18-minute trip with two changes: each change adds 3-6 minutes of waiting and multiplies the risk of delay. Always check this number before the total time.

  2. 2. Walking time on both ends

    App-quoted times are often station-to-station only. Add the walk from your residence and to your actual building: on a spread-out campus like Créteil, Nanterre or Saclay, that can mean 10 extra minutes. Always ask for the real walking time to the nearest station.

  3. 3. Peak-hour crowding

    Between 8am and 9:30am, some lines get crowded enough that you may need to let a train pass. RER D and metro line 13 are particularly busy. If your classes start at 8am, test the actual commute on a weekday before signing anything.

  4. 4. Night service

    The metro runs until roughly 1:15am on weekdays and 2:15am on Fridays, Saturdays and nights before public holidays. RER and tram lines generally stop earlier. If you go out regularly in the evening, a residence on a metro line is noticeably more practical than one on RER only, where the Noctilien night-bus network becomes your only option.

The honest calculation to make. Multiply your round-trip commute by the number of class days per week, then by roughly 30 weeks in the academic year. A 15-minute difference each way adds up to about 75 hours over the year at four class days a week. Weigh that against the rent gap — depending on your situation, either factor can win, and there's no universal answer.

7. The steps to rent student housing

Here are the 5 key steps to secure student housing in Paris, including what's different if you're applying from abroad.

1

Define your criteria

Maximum all-inclusive budget, location (near which campus?), housing type (studio, two-room), move-in date. Write down your three non-negotiables.

2

Prepare your application in advance

Gather: ID or passport, proof of enrolment or admission, bank details (RIB), your guarantor's most recent French tax notice, and their last 3 payslips. No guarantor, or one who can't provide French paperwork? Visale (Action Logement's free guarantee) is built for exactly this case, including for international students.

3

Visit, or pre-book remotely

In a private student residence, you can typically pre-book with no commitment for 7 days while you finalise your file. 360° virtual tours are usually available if you can't travel to visit in person before arriving in France.

4

Sign and pay the security deposit

Signing is electronic (within 48h). The security deposit equals one month's rent excluding bills. No agency fees in the residences on this site.

5

Apply for housing benefit on caf.fr

Apply for APL as soon as you sign your lease, on caf.fr. Payments start 2-3 months later with retroactive back-payment. Under direct payment, CAF pays your landlord directly.

8. Financial aid for students in Paris

APL (housing benefit)

Paid by CAF, worth €100-300/month depending on your income. All 9 residences in this network are APL-eligible — and eligibility generally doesn't depend on nationality, though it's worth confirming your own case.

→ Full guide to student housing benefit

Visale guarantee

Free rental guarantee for students and young people (under 30) without a guarantor. Offered by Action Logement. Apply at visale.fr before signing your lease.

CROUS scholarship

Awarded on financial-need criteria (0 to 7 tiers, €100-580/month). Can't be combined with APL, but is added to your overall income when APL is calculated.

Loca-Pass

A free advance on your security deposit for students in work-study programmes or with prior work experience. Repayable over 3 years. Offered by Action Logement.

FAQ – Student Housing in Paris

Should I live inside Paris or just outside it as a student?
It depends entirely on where your classes actually are. If your university is in Saint-Denis, Villetaneuse, Bobigny, Aubervilliers, Créteil or Nanterre, the surrounding towns put you 5-15 minutes from campus for €300-400 less per month — an easy call. If your classes are in the Latin Quarter or at Sciences Po, living just outside Paris adds 25-40 minutes each way, and the choice becomes a genuine trade-off between budget and time.
What's the cheapest student neighbourhood inside Paris?
The north-east: the 18th, 19th and 20th arrondissements, with studios from around €850 excluding bills, against €900-1,600 in the 5th. The 10th is also reasonably accessible around €800. These are also the arrondissements best connected to the northern suburbs, making them the best compromise if your classes are in Seine-Saint-Denis.
How long does it really take to get from Saint-Denis to the Latin Quarter?
Roughly 35-45 minutes door-to-door at peak time, with at least one change — line 13 into the centre, then a second line. That's the typical trip that makes a Saint-Denis residence impractical for a Sorbonne student, while the same residence puts a Paris 8 student 5 minutes from their lecture hall.
Can I get housing benefit (APL) in a flatshare?
Yes. Each flatmate can apply for APL individually on their share of the rent, provided they're named on the lease or hold a landlord's certificate. The amount is calculated per person based on their own income. One catch: the rent ceiling CAF applies to a flatshare is lower than for a single-occupant home.
When should international students start looking for September housing?
The real window opens in April. Over 60% of residence bookings happen between May and July, and larger units (two- and three-room) go first, often by May. After mid-July, availability drops sharply. If you're applying for CROUS student halls, the French Dossier Social Étudiant (DSE) application runs January to 31 May — a hard deadline, and free to apply.
What if I don't have a guarantor, or my parents live abroad?
Visale is the answer in most cases: a free, state-backed guarantee available to students with no income requirement, up to a capped rent, and accepted by all 9 residences on this site. You apply online before signing your lease — it works for international students too, guarantor or not. Paid guarantor services like GarantMe or Cautioneo charge a percentage of annual rent and are usually only worth it if Visale is refused.
What's the real difference between a private student residence and CROUS housing?
Price and access. CROUS Paris offers rooms around €270-380/month and studios at €420-650, but places are allocated on financial-need criteria, with priority to scholarship holders, and demand far outstrips supply. Private, APL-eligible residences — €651-760/month bills included here — are open with no means test and no social waiting list, and tend to have newer fittings. After housing benefit, the real cost gap narrows considerably.
Are bills genuinely included in student residences?
In the 9 residences on this site, yes: water, electricity, heating, fibre internet, upkeep of shared areas and waste collection tax are all folded into the rent shown, with no annual reconciliation bill. You'll still need mandatory renter's insurance, about €6/month, and a security deposit equal to one month's rent excluding charges. On the open market, bills are almost always billed separately, typically €50-90/month.
Can I end a student lease partway through the year?
Yes. A furnished tenancy in France requires one month's notice (three months for unfurnished), and that notice can be given at any point in the year, including mid-term. Notice is given by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt or via a bailiff. The deposit is returned within one month if the move-out inspection is clean, two months otherwise.
Does the metro run late enough for a night out?
The Paris metro runs until roughly 1:15am on weekdays and 2:15am on Fridays, Saturdays and nights before public holidays. RER trains and trams generally stop earlier. In practice, a residence on a metro line like 5 or 13 gives you far more flexibility than one served only by RER, where the Noctilien night-bus network becomes your only fallback. Check current RATP timetables, since they change yearly.
Does living outside central Paris cost more in transport?
No. The Imagine R student transit pass covers the whole Île-de-France region, all zones included, for under-26s, so your transport cost doesn't change whether you live in Paris or just outside it. This matters for the budget trade-off: contrary to a common assumption, moving away from central Paris does not raise your transport spend as long as you stay within Île-de-France.
Does living just outside Paris mean a worse student experience?
It depends what you're optimising for. If your social life revolves around your campus, and that campus is in Saint-Denis or Bobigny, you'll actually be better placed than classmates housed inside Paris. If you want to go out in central Paris every night, the trade-off is real: budget 20-30 minutes to get back and watch the last-metro clock. The northern suburbs are now well equipped with cinemas, libraries and sports facilities, but nightlife density still doesn't compare to the 10th, 11th or 20th arrondissements.

Ready to find your housing?

9 student residences in Île-de-France, from €651/month bills included.

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