So with all of this excitement I thought I would make this entry about my experience of flat hunting in the capital; I figure this is something that lots of people will experience when they move here so they may be able to relate to some of this!
After making the decision to leave the next step was to find a place, so where did I look? Well after hearing horror stories from my boyfriend I was a little tentative about how to handle the situation and who to trust. Apparently his friend had an experience with a very dishonest landlord who allowed his current tenants to give their spare room to a friend. However, due to an absence of a contract the landlord was at liberty to do as he wished and once the new flatmate had moved in, the miser found someone else who would pay more money and promptly kicked the poor guy straight back out. Not a good situation and I am sure it is a rare occurrence however it does highlight the need for careful elimination of flats in which you do not deal directly with the owner, agent or landlord. It also shows that it is imperative to have a contract signed by both parties (and not in Arabic!).
IH Cairo ILI do have an number of agents and flats on their books who are tried, tested and as a result trusted so potential students can come to us as a first port of call. However, I ended up finding mine online in the end. There were just a couple of websites out of the hundreds I clicked on that I thought seemed trustworthy (http://cairo.craigslist.org/hsw/ and http://www.expatriates.com/ are the ones I used). My opinion of ‘trustworthy’ is influenced by things like how up to date the posts are and the reliability of the search engine. Usually I steer away from websites that are not very attractive in their design as they often seem tacky but surprisingly the flat I chose in the end was off of expatriates.com, which is not very sophisticated at first glance to be honest .
There seemed to be very few realtors online who I could search with, apart from expensive ones for the wealthy, which clearly I am not! One website that springs to mind is www.asapeg.com. This site deals with expats and has flats to suit all budgets although no house shares to speak of. I liked using this guy because he had instant messenger and the option to keep in touch via text, so he is available for almost instant feedback to an enquiry. I didn’t find anything with him though, and also the other pointer that is worth mentioning with all agencies is that they take a very large cut of your money for their fees, so don’t get stung.
I think I felt happier searching freely online because I had my boyfriend with me for protection –mainly from people who wanted to rip me off really but also for any potential creeps, stalkers or otherwise, who may dwell in the land of the rental apartments! Although most classified adverts seem legitimate you just never know who you might come across, and for this reason I would strongly suggest that if moving without a contact in the city such as a friend, family or an institution like IH Cairo ILI, that you do what my colleague did and talk to a relocation service for advice. I haven’t got any good ones to hand, however a quick Google search brings up loads.
So in order to find a nice place within my budget and in which I would not be lonely I opted for a flatshare. After some considerable effort and a lot of Googling, I've found the perfect escape in a lovely flat with another girl. It has a fully fitted kitchen, a roof terrace with a view of Cairo Tower, space for guests to sleep and a dance studio (yes you read correctly, one side of the living room is entirely made out of mirror and if we feel inclined as such we can rent the space out and have free dance classes on our doorstep!) I move in next week and I can’t wait! I believe I may be the envy of quite a number of people with my cool new hippie-esq pad! The main requisite for my new flat was that the landlord had to be happy with Rami visiting and الحمد لله ('Elhumdulaley' which means Thank God and is a very common word in Arabic!) the landlady is very open minded, although even now there are still a few restrictions and rules. Only 2/5 landlords out of the flats I looked at would have allowed me to have a male visitor, let alone an Egyptian male.
Suffice to say, once safely ensconced in your new home there is still much fun to be had learning how to deal with landlords who may be reluctant to cooperate in your smooth settling. In my current place I have had to take the flat with all its teething problems including burst pipes, dodgy boiler, broken oven and a temperamental toilet to name but a few. In fact I have learnt so much about how to fix all of my various amenities that I am thinking of offering my services around Cairo as a part-time plumber! If it wasn’t for the negotiating skills of Rami’s father I probably would have had to dig into my own pocket to pay for these repairs as well and as a result there is a clause in my new contract to protect me from paying for anything that happens that is beyond my control.
I have heard similar stories about absent or nonchalant landlords from around the college (for example those who do not seem to think that a leaky light fitting coming from the floor above is in anyway dangerous at all!) I think that these are tales for another time however. Right now I am looking forward, not back, to the big move next week. I will have to blog about how it goes- I sincerely hope that the removal men don’t dent my bed!
In the age of attribution , this image needs to be (c) to "flyvancity"
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