Accommodation
Finding somewhere to live is usually the first real hurdle after landing in Toulouse. Here's the official guidance, the practical steps, and the numbers you need to sort it out fast.
The essentials, in numbers
From the University of Toulouse's 2024/2025 student housing guide. Once you have a place, sort out Transport and Finance & Banking next, then Shopping to furnish it.
Finding your place
Compile your file early
The best window to search is from early July, once Bac results are out, to mid-August: options get scarce once term starts. DossierFacile.fr, a free official service, helps you put together and secure your rental file: ID, student card, proof of address, bank details, and a guarantor's documents if you have one.
Choose your track
Apply for Crous housing through your annual dossier social étudiant on messervices.etudiant.gouv.fr, priority goes to scholarship holders, or search the private market and shared flats in parallel. Exchange students should also contact their host faculty's international office.
Secure a guarantor
No French guarantor? Apply online for Visale, Action Logement's free guarantee. It covers up to 36 months of unpaid rent in a private rental, or 9 months in Crous and social student housing.
Sign and move in
Take out home insurance before you get the keys, complete a detailed move-in inventory and keep a copy, sign the lease, then register electricity, gas, and internet in your own name.
Claim your housing benefit
Apply to the Caf for housing benefit once your lease is signed. Your first month is never covered, and if you keep the place over July and August you must notify the Caf in June or the aid is automatically suspended.
Official university housing guide
The University of Toulouse's Accueil-Welcome Desk publishes a full guide to student housing across the Toulouse academic region: budgets, guarantors, financial aid, and a city-by-city directory of residences. Download it and keep it on hand while you search.
Types of housing
Useful contacts in Toulouse
- Accueil-Welcome DeskThe university's welcome service for international students, with an on-site Caf desk exclusively for students.41 allées Jules Guesde, allée Matilda, 31000 Toulouse (metro B: Carmes or Palais de Justice)
- Crous Toulouse OccitanieGrants, housing, student jobs, and campus life, by appointment.
- ADIL 31Free legal and financial advice on housing.4 rue Furgole, 31000 Toulouse
- CLLAJ 31Help finding independent housing for young people: application forms, search tools, tenants' rights.169 avenue de Muret, 31300 Toulouse
- Info Jeunes OccitanieGeneral youth information and rights, including housing.17 rue de Metz, 31000 Toulouse (metro A: Esquirol)
- Community Health Service (SCHS)Report substandard, unsanitary, or unsafe housing to the city of Toulouse.17 place de la Daurade, 31000 Toulouse
Frequently asked questions
Not necessarily. If nobody can act as your guarantor, apply online for Visale, Action Logement's free guarantee. It costs nothing for tenant or landlord and covers up to 36 months of unpaid rent in a private rental, or 9 months in Crous and social student housing.
Your first month in the property is never covered, and payments only start once your file is processed. If you keep the accommodation over July and August, you must notify the Caf in June or your aid is automatically suspended.
Yes. A room under 9m² does not qualify for Caf housing benefit, whatever the rent.
One month's rent for an unfurnished place, two months for a furnished one. It's refunded within one month of moving out if the exit inventory matches the entry one, or within two months if it doesn't.
Never pay in cash or send money, by wire transfer, Western Union or otherwise, before signing the lease. Be wary of listings with suspiciously cheap rent or too-perfect photos, and never pay anyone just for access to a list of available housing.
Need a hand now?
Ask the community on WhatsApp
This page is written and kept current by AEGEE Toulouse, the volunteer association that's welcomed international students to Toulouse since 2025. It covers the general process, not your specific lease or paperwork: post your question, from reading a lease clause to finding a guarantor, in the WhatsApp group below: someone has likely navigated exactly this.
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