How to Find an Apartment or Room in Bogotá

Upon arriving in Bogotá, one of my biggest conundrums was how to find a long-term apartment in Bogotá. In a city as big as this one, there is a huge variety of options for all price ranges, lifestyles and periods of time. Here are some tips to help you find the right living situation:

Sharing a house or apartment with locals: The cheaper option for living in Bogotá would be to rent out a room in someone´s house or apartment. This is often more practical for a number of reasons besides generally being more affordable, namely not having to sign a lease for a set amount of time and not having to find a Colombian co-signer to vouch for you. To do this, use the website http://www.compartoapto.com . This is a website where people come together who are looking to rent out, or rent into, a room and is mostly used by students and young professionals all over the city. Here you will find rooms, usually furnished, anywhere from COP 200,000 (about $100 USD) to over COP 1,500,000 (about $750).

• Buscar Avisos: Look for ads people have posted by neighborhood and price. If you only wish to see furnished rooms, click ¨amueblada¨ in the busqueda avanzada (advanced search) section. Here you can also narrow the search by gender, age, sexual orientation, etc. of your new roommate(s).
• When you find a posting that interests you, you can enviar email either through the website or through your own e-mail account if the owner´s e-mail is posted. Either way, I recommend asking the poster to respond to you at your personal e-mail account because in order to view e-mails sent to you through the site you have to pay an inscription fee.
• Alternatively, you can publicar un aviso, or create your own posting advertising yourself as a new roommate. You post your stats and a basic note of what you are looking for (in Spanish or English), and then the people who are interested in you will contact you directly.

Renting your own apartment (furnished or not): Whether you would like to live alone, or with other recently arrived friends, you can also search for your own apartment online. The most useful site I found to do this online is www.metrocuadrado.com . Here you can look for apartments in Bogotá based on area and price (make sure you click on arrienda-rent-in the box instead of compra, unless you are looking to buy a place!).

• Here you can also filter your search by price, square meters, number of rooms (habitaciones), furnished (con muebles or sin muebles), etc. You will find many more apartments here that are unfurnished.
• Prices on this site tend to be a little higher as these are the apartments represented by real estate agencies. They generally have the set price, which is shown on the ad, as well as a valor administrativo, or monthly building fee, as well as monthly servicios (usually water, gas, cable, internet, energy).
• When you contact an ad, include your email or phone number and the realtor will usually respond to you promptly if the apartment is still available in order to set up an apointment to see it. The realtors tend to be on-time for appointments (a rarity in Colombia!), so make sure you are too!
• Keep in mind that for many of these apartments, you will need a Colombian co-signer to vouch for you and sometimes need to sign a lease for six months or one year.