“It’s a good time to look”: the first results from Parcoursup kick off the race for student housing in Montpellier

Les étudiants galèrent souvent à trouver un logement durant l’été. Crous – Alexandre Bena

For several years, the supply of accommodation for students has been tight in Montpellier. While the Parcoursup and MonMaster platforms reveal their first results, the research promises to be complicated.

With nearly 80,000 students per year, Montpellier remains more than ever an attractive city. According to the ranking of the L’Student site for the year 2023-2024, based on several criteria such as training or the living environment, the Hérault prefecture comes at the top of the student cities with a score of 93 /121, ahead of Strasbourg (92/121) and Rennes (91/121).

Consequence: student accommodation is stormed, particularly as summer approaches, at the time of the first Parcoursup results, which took place on Thursday.

A tense rental market which worries some students and their parents. Emiline, an 18-year-old high school student, hopes to enroll in an arts degree at Paul-Valéry University. But the young Avignonnaise will first have to find accommodation to return to school in September.

"T’take away that stress"

"Friends told me that it’s very complicated to find affordable accommodation, not too far from the faculty’ quot;, says mother Christelle Mata, for the first time looking for an apartment for her children."We begin this fight that other parents have experienced before us. For the moment, we're betting everything on Crous accommodation, but we've already started looking on Facebook," explains Christelle Mata.

Emiline's mother is optimistic and wants to quickly find a property for her daughter. With a budget of 500 euros, the high school student's parents prefer anticipate to "s’remove this stress in the apartment search."

What other ways to find student accommodation ?

If we except the Crous, LeBonCoin or the groups on the networks social, other solutions exist for finding student accommodation. The first is to take a look at ad sites like rental-student, Seloger, or Private to private.

Shared accommodation can also be an alternative. La Carte des Colocs, Immojeune, or Appartager offer to find shared accommodation sometimes at reduced prices. Finally, there are private student residences. For these accommodations, you will need a larger budget.

“The right time to look”

An anxiety is also present in Isabelle but much less in her son Mathéo, originally from Aude. Applying on the MonMaster platform for the master's degree in teaching, education and training professions (MEEF) in Montpellier, the 21-year-old young man believes that he has still time until the results on June 4 and when the time comes, he will do the research work< /em>. An opinion not at all shared by his mother who is doing everything possible to motivate her son and find "as quickly as possible", at the risk of ;rsquo;have accommodation but no master’s degree.

Advice also given by Livia Jampy, spokesperson for the SCUM, one of the main student unions at Paul-Valéry Montpellier University, believing that we must look now. "Accommodations become available from May onwards, this is a good time to look."

For her part, Isabelle carries out her property searches mainly on LeBonCoin and SeLoger, without going through the Crous. "We cannot benefit from scholarships or housing given our income", she explains. Mathéo's parents do not yet want to contact real estate agencies. "We are still waiting for the master's admission result."

In Montpellier, 59 requests on average for a student accommodation rental offer

A recent study by the student residence manager, Les Belles Années, shows that Montpellier is one of the cities with the highest rental tension in France. The study, based on one year, cross-references the data to establish a number of requests per rental advertisement. With a score of 10/10 in rental tension, the Hérault town has an average of 59 requests per ad.

For the director of Belles Années Morgane Bentata, rental tensions are mainly concentrated on T1 and T2. "In France, according to our study, 55% of students prefer studios, and 20% turn to T2s. Shared accommodation is simply not French culture."

Manager of residences since 2010, Les Belles Années owns three residences in Montpellier (Aiguelongue, Cévennes, avenue de Lodève) and 315 accommodations. To benefit from a studio or a T2, two conditions are necessary: ​​to be solvent and to have a school certificate or a letter of intent to accept.

Applications for these residencies are being made now before the results of Parcoursup, MonMaster or even obtaining the baccalaureate. " Before, we filled our residences at the end of June, beginning of July. Now, on June 21, everything is complete", says the director of Les Belles Années.

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