Housing

chapeau: 
page repaired by pyg on 23 April 2010 - the URL had been broken by outsiders - last modification pyg 24 September 2010

Our international office can help you regarding your housing problem; please note that we shall not start working on your housing problem until formal acceptance has been granted to you (see Application guidelines).

On campus housing

Student on campus housing (as well as some Bordeaux downtown housing) is provided by BordeauxCROUS. They offer single rooms, and appartment sharing. On campus residences are under heavy remodeling: old buildings have been, or are being, modernized; new buildings have recently been added, or are being built. There are still some (dirty) old rooms, with very little comfort, that should be avoided, if possible. If you do not apply early enough, you may end up in a terrible place! You should also take into account the distance between ENSEIRB-MATMECA and your residence. For instance, Village 1 is very close; Village 5 is far, but still on the tram line.

Application procedure

From Bordeaux CROUS website, you can easily access an English PDF guideline document, on the recommended application procedure. It is expected that, in the near future, this procedure becomes friendly enough to allow you to entirely monitor your booking (including credit card or other means, for advance payment, if required), through CROUS Internet website, as you would do for a hotel reservation. There is a project in the works. Until this is implemented, you will probably find the recommended procedure a little difficult to understand and apply.

Therefore, this is what we recommend:

  • Look at Bordeaux CROUS website, in order to decide where you would like to live, and what kind of home (there are different prices);
  • Apply CROUS application guideline;
  • Inform our international officer, through the Whiteboard and Housing form available in your shared application folder, as soon as possible, including, this is the most important, your date of arrival and expected duration of stay;
  • Keep in touch with our international officer, and scolarity services who are in care of the interface between CROUS and yourself, regarding paper work (for instance, CROUS notification of acceptance, and room and village number):
    1. scolarity services contact for CROUS: chambres.crous@enseirb-matmeca.fr;
  • Get in touch with Club IEE (a student association for international exchanges) that will offer invaluable help for your installation, eventually welcome you at the airport or train station, and make sure that you can effectively enter your room;
  • Check "Clé Aquitaine" and "CAF" below, as these may solve some administrative issues or save you some money: students often do this after their arrival.

Clé Aquitaine

You pay your rent at the beginning of each month; in addition, you are usually required to give a deposit (typically equivalent to one month of rent), that will be returned to you if you return your room in good conditions. You may also be required to provide a "caution", that is, a person that will act as a guarantee for the payment of your rent, if you fail to pay for it. Clé Aquitaine solves these problems.

CAF

If you plan to stay long enough, you may be entitled to financial help for housing: check CAF or CAF de la Gironde; be prepared for some paper work.

Page rewritten by International Relations on 6 January 2010.