• As the return to school and university approaches, many students are still waiting for accommodation and struggling.

  • In Rennes, the Covid-19 crisis seemed to delay the search for apartments.

    The shortage of small housing is starting to be felt.

  • In this tense situation, scams are on the increase and dozens of victims have already lodged a complaint. 

It's always a bit of a fair before the start of the school year. In Rennes, more than a quarter of the 210,000 inhabitants are students. Every year, the same phenomenon occurs over and over again: throughout the summer, thousands of newcomers are looking for accommodation at the same time, causing joyous tension in the real estate market. For this comeback, which will once again be marked by the hovering shadow of Covid-19, the situation seems to have worsened. Blame it on the virus, of course. “Normally, students start their research in May and June. But this year, everything was done later. There are undoubtedly a lot of parents who waited to know how the start of the new school year would go before committing ”, explains Richard Horbette.

For years, the founder of the LocService site has been analyzing the markets for “small accommodation” such as one-room apartments or studios, which are very popular with students. The “blood pressure monitor” on its site explains that it is “very difficult” to find accommodation in the Breton capital. An observation which is not surprising. “Rennes remains the most expensive city in Brittany and the most in demand. But there is no real increase in rents. A study carried out by several student associations such as Fage and Unef placed Rennes in 23rd position among the most expensive cities with an average rent of 433 euros, far from Paris (850 euros) or Bordeaux (561 euros). A result which delighted the vice-president of the metropolis delegated to the habitat. In a press release,Honoré Puil welcomed the fact that the territory "is one of the metropolises which best respond to the increase in the number of its students".

yooo les boyssss !!! ✨🦋 I am looking for an apartment in Rennes in the city center, my budget is 560 € so if you have tracks or if you know people I am interested because it is a bit of panic! ☺️ RT svpppp thank you🥺

- 🐸🐸🐸 (@xrmysmn) August 23, 2021

In fact, the reality seems quite different. With an increase in the number of students estimated at 27% in ten years, the Breton capital is struggling to keep up with demand. “It's hypercomplicated. I've been looking for over a month and still haven't found anything. I had no proposal, no visit, nothing ”, testifies Romain. Freshly graduated, the young man is looking for a roommate with a friend. To achieve this, he visits a well-known online classifieds site very regularly. “Le Bon Coin is the jungle. We send messages, we try to call but the owners are overwhelmed. In five minutes, the ad is withdrawn, ”continues the young man.

Many of his friends have been in the same situation, some going so far as to send sixty messages without ever finding their happiness.

Sometimes resigning themselves to return to their parents.

Faced with this shortage, students also recognize “lowering their requirements or agreeing to pay more”.

To answer this, the metropolis announces the creation of 1,150 additional housing units by 2023. Not sure that this is enough.

More and more scams

This tension on housing did not escape the thugs. In the Breton capital, scams are increasing and complaints for scams are piling up on the offices of the financial brigade of the national police. “It's the Internet problem. Everything is going too fast. People are afraid to miss the announcement so they agree to pay anyone money, ”says police captain Béatrice Troussière. On online ad sites, fake owners claim payments by means of coupons to be purchased at a tobacconist's via prepaid bank cards such as Transcash or PCS. “The scammers explain that they live far away, that they don't want to travel for nothing and that they want an advance to prove your good faith.They use the same arguments to obtain identity documents that they will falsify, ”continues the captain, who advises“ never to book an apartment without having visited it ”.

In this climate of tension, many people respond to these scammers, believing they have finally obtained the guarantee of finding an apartment.

“We receive up to ten complaints from victims per week.

Some people sometimes pay one or even two months' rent that they will probably never see again.

“Even if we manage to trace it back to the crooks quite well.

As long as they are in France, ”recognizes the head of the Rennes financial squad.

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