Apartments for Rent in Paris

Two flats on the same landing are not worth the same. One faces the street, the other the courtyard, and both the light and the noise change with the side. An advert that says which one saves a visit.

The map on a listing shows a five-hundred-meter circle around the home, never an exact point: Quoloc does not publish the address, and only the person advertising can choose to give it in the exchange. A Street View tab shows the street where coverage exists.

The list of apartments for rent filters on price, move-in date, minimum stay, furnished or not, smoking, pets and the type of property; with Quoloc Plus, also on the twenty-three amenities, the number of rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms, the floor, the elevator, parking and who is letting. Moving the map narrows the list to what is in view.

The lift is the other line to look for. Many older buildings in Paris have none, and a top floor without a lift is not lived in like a top floor with one.

The floor area given says nothing about the ceiling height, which varies sharply from one building to the next in the city. A low room and a tall room of the same area are not lived in the same way.

A district of Paris is not a local authority: it has neither legal personality nor a budget of its own, and its council holds restricted powers. The number on an advert therefore places an address; it does not name an authority.

What the number really says is a position in the city: the first districts sit at the center, and the numbering then moves outwards.

A home advertised in Paris carries that number, and two adverts from the same district still differ: the floor area and the story do the rest.

The Seine splits the city into two banks, and that split is older than the numbers. An advert still says left bank or right bank when it wants to place itself in a word.

The ring road marks the edge of the commune. Beyond it other communes begin, with their own names and their own adverts, sometimes a few metro stops away.

The conciliation body has a named edge: it only hears about a dwelling that is the tenant's main home, and the short-term mobility lease falls outside it. A home taken for short periods therefore falls outside it.

The model of the contract, on the other hand, is laid down: it is the contrat type de location, the model form a decree lays down for a dwelling let as a main home.

An apartment listing carries the rent and its currency, whether utilities are included, the floor area, the number of rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms, the floor, the elevator, parking, whether the apartment is furnished, the dates it is available, the minimum stay and who is letting it (the owner, an agency or a tenant moving out). Twenty-three amenities are ticked, from wifi to a garden, and the listing says whether pets and smoking are accepted. All of that can be read before writing.

Every listing and every profile carries a report button, and a report keeps its state until it is closed. A person can also be blocked, and the block runs both ways: the person blocked receives no notification and simply can no longer write to whoever blocked them, or comment on their listings or profile.