If you're considering making the leap across the pond and living the dream in Paris, apartment hunting will likely become your first French endurance test. Let’s try to make it easier.
Step 1: Know What You're Looking For
Sure, it's fun to peruse real estate porn — those fabulous apartments with soaring ceilings and postcard views of the Seine. But before you get emotionally attached to that penthouse with Eiffel Tower views you need to face reality that it’s a fifth-floor walk-up and that view is at a 47-degree angle, which requires leaning out the window at an inhumanly configured perch. So let's talk priorities. Paris apartments will test your patience, your budget, and occasionally your dignity. The only way to avoid being seduced by a charming but fundamentally wrong apartment is to know, in advance, how to prioritize your day-to-day living. Your apartment should be a long-term relationship – not a one-night stand you regret almost immediately.
Think of your requirements as a more dignified Olympic medal podium.
Gold Medal
How many bedrooms? One bathroom or two? Furnished or unfurnished?
If unfurnished: does the apartment have a fitted and equipped kitchen? If not, you may be looking at a whole wall of missing appliances. As a sweeping generalization, appliances are less expensive in Europe since so many are designed and manufactured here — but if you return to the U.S., don't plan to bring them with you.
Voltage incompatibility is one reason (some appliances are dual-voltage, most aren't); the cost of shipping is another. And in 2026, there's that one word that adds incremental costs: tariffs.
Silver Medal
These are things you'd prefer but can accept losing with a gracious smile (and, perhaps, a small pang of disappointment over time). A washing machine. A dishwasher. Beautiful parquet flooring. Double-paned windows — during a frigid Paris winter, that one matters more than A/C in the summer, and you'll be hard-pressed to find A/C except in the most modern of buildings.
Bronze Medal
Here's where we get philosophical.
How important, really, is a dryer? If you've ever had air-dried towels and don't want them doing double duty as sandpaper-level exfoliators, you may want to elevate this to Silver — but dryers are extremely rare in apartments under €5,000/month.
Tall ceilings? Glorious when you find them; three meters is the entry point for "tall."
A Haussmann apartment? Every bit as lovely as the photos suggest, but know you're competing with approximately everyone else in Paris.
A bathtub? Sometimes that precludes having a shower. Plan accordingly.
Air conditioning? Rarer than a short line at the Louvre; rarer than ketchup served with French fries; rarer than…okay, you get it. A/C is not the norm, rather it’s found in newer buildings and classically renovated apartments at budgets over €10,000/month.
Curtains and drapes? Often not included — make peace with it, or budget for a trip to Ikea.
Partial Eiffel Tower view? May mean leaning out a window at a 47-degree angle.
Participation Prize
Think underdog Olympic optimism. We're talking low street noise; distance from tourist corridors (near the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, the Champs-Élysées). Other considerations: proximity to a pharmacy or park, the condition of the apartment, and — critically for anyone on a lower floor — vis-à-vis, meaning whether your neighbors can see directly into your living room. Or bedroom. In Paris, they frequently can. Decide how you feel about that before you undress.
And on the subject of pets: Paris is very pet-friendly, especially for small dogs. But get approval before settling in (see the link to the Guide to Relocating Your Pet to Europe at the end of this guide).
Download the Full Guide to Finding an Apartment in Paris by signing up for our newsletter.
Includes:
Step 2: Prepare Your Finances
Step 3: Do Your Research
Step 4: Renter Beware
Plus these resources:
✓ Guarantor options
✓ ALUR vs Civil Code explained
✓ Hidden apartment costs
✓ Banking setup
✓Considerations between renting and buying
Additional helpful documents:
✓ Apartment Criteria Checklist
✓ Apartment Showing Tracker
✓ Guide to Relocating Your Pet to Europe
