A room of your own,a 214 m² flat to share.

None. No admin fee, no lease drafting fee, no inventory fee. For scale: French law lets a professional charge a tenant up to €10.09 including tax per m² for letting the room, plus €3.03 per m² for the inventory — on a 10 m² room that would be roughly €130 extra on signing day. We charge nothing.

One month's rent excluding charges — the exact figure is shown on each room. It is paid on signing and returned at the end of the lease after the check-out inventory, less any damage. French law allows up to two months on a furnished let: we ask for one, and calculate it without the service charge. Joining a house share shouldn't mean finding €1,500 up front.

A one-year furnished lease in your name alone, renewed automatically. You can leave at any time with one month's notice, no reason required and no penalty. You aren't jointly liable for your flatmates' rent: everyone has their own contract.

Seven people, mostly young professionals, several of whom work in Geneva. We don't give out their names or jobs before the viewing, out of respect for them — but you'll meet them on the day you come, and that's the best way to tell whether you'll get on.

A company comes every week for the shared areas: kitchen, living room, shower rooms, toilets, hallways. It's included in the service charge. Your room, your laundry and your washing-up stay yours — the one thing that takes a bit of collective discipline.

The flat is on fibre and the subscription is included in the charges. We're currently measuring the real speed in each bedroom and strengthening coverage where needed. If you work on video calls, say so: we'll give you the reading for that specific room before you commit.

No, the flat has no allocated space. Parking is on the street and in nearby public car parks. If you absolutely need a space, mention it in your application: we're currently looking for spaces to offer nearby.

Yes. This is a common misunderstanding: Visale doesn't replace the deposit, it comes on top. It covers unpaid rent and up to two months of damage, but the deposit is what answers for everyday wear and tear. The only case where a deposit is forbidden is the mobility lease, which we don't use here. We ask for one month excluding charges, whatever your guarantee.

No. The Visale guarantee from Action Logement is free and replaces a personal guarantor; it covers far more profiles than people assume, particularly the under-thirties and employees early in a contract. One rule to respect: get the visa BEFORE signing the lease. See the 'Your guarantee' section above.

Yes. The lease is individual and in your name, so you can file your own claim with the CAF after signing. For a privately let furnished flat like this one it is called ALS rather than APL — same benefit, different label. The amount depends on your income and your share of the rent, and it is not backdated: claim as soon as you move in. The simulation on caf.fr is the only reliable source.

We call within 48 working hours, including to say no. An application left unanswered is the most infuriating part of any flat hunt: we reply to every one, even when the room has just gone.

You message us, and we deal with it. That's exactly what management is for: a broken boiler on a Sunday shouldn't become your problem, or a debate between eight people. We handle emergencies the same day and everything else within the week. What makes people leave a house share is almost never the flat — it's a leaking shower nobody has answered about for three weeks.

On the file, then on meeting you. The file says whether the rent is manageable for you; the call and the viewing say the rest — your hours, how you feel about noise and cleaning, what you want from a house share. Seven people already live there and didn't pick their flatmates: our job is not to land them with an arrangement that won't last three months. That protects you too.

No, and we won't set one. Age is one of the grounds on which French law forbids refusing someone housing, and that isn't a formality: it's for the landlord to prove a refusal was justified, not for the applicant to prove otherwise. What we look at is income, guarantee and lifestyle — none of which has an age.

No. We do the viewing by video call, camera in hand, in French or English, answering your questions live. Many of our applicants are arriving for a job in Geneva and can't travel beforehand.