The search: Sites and portals

You are a student

Student Housing Aarhus (http://www.studenthousingaarhus.com) is your best friend

Expect a rent of between 2,500–4,000DKK, depending on room type (single room, with/without en-suite bathroom and/or kitchen)

Apply early!

If you are a student looking for house, the trick is to start looking early. In fact, once you have been accepted by an institution to study, or receive an education, in Denmark, you are typically automatically eligible to apply for student housing. Student Housing Aarhus (“Ungdomsbolig Aarhus” in Danish) is the only organisation that distributes and manages allocation of student housing in the city of Aarhus.

Student Housing Aarhus allows you to create an application up to 6 months before the start of your education, but you need to be able to provide proof showing that you have been accepted by one of their approved educational institutions (most people I know are either enrolled in Aarhus University or VIA University College, both of which are accepted).

The only exception is that if you are an exchange/Erasmus student: that means you are likely be in the talks with the international student services of your respective institutions, who will have a pre-allocated but limited number of rooms to give out.

I was lucky enough to be given a room in Børglum Kollegiet in Risskov, during my stay in Aarhus as an exchange student

There is no guarantee that the international student services of your educational institution will provide housing for you. However, trust me that they are really trying their very best.

When I was an exchange student with Aarhus University back in 2011, I was lucky enough to be given a room in Børglum Kollegiet in Risskov. It’s 15-minutes by bike from the university, close to amenities, and have non-square rooms (so you can go all funkytown arranging furniture in your rooms).

The trick to secure an apartment without toiling forever in the waiting list is simply to aim low. You can register for popular dorms, but be sure to include few of the less popular ones (those that are further out), which have shorter waiting list. Your modus operandi will be to secure a roof over your head first, and then worry about travel distances and conveniences later. When you are already in a dorm, you can still keep your application, remove the lower ranking dorms, yet remain on the waiting list for “nicer” ones.

The legend goes Rose waited for an apartment-type dorm in Aarhus…

One-foot-in-the-door trick: Take advantage of “internal moving” in dorms that offer units of different types (rooms & apartments)

Some dormitories offer a mix of housing units, such as standalone apartments (en suite kitchen and bathroom/toilet) and dorm rooms (common kitchen, but bathrooms/toilets may be en suite). Standalone apartment units typically have exorbitant waiting times close to the expected heat death of the universe (joking, but they’re often >5 years) and the truth is, you never get to wait it out. Internal residents get priority to “upgrading” via internal movement, meaning that the to-be vacant units are often snapped up by pre-existing residents before outsiders even get a chance. In other words, internally moving residents are always pushed to the top of the waiting list. In lieu with the “aim low” philosophy, gun for the dorm rooms first—then apply for internal movement at a later date.

Some helpful notes:

Renew your application once a month, to accumulate seniority which will place you higher on waiting lists. Create a calendar notification for this monthly ritual—all you need is to log in every month, no matter what day it is.

You are only allowed to reject housing offers 3 times before your account is deactivated (read: you lose all accumulated seniority).

Student Housing Aarhus is typically always swamped with requests, and stand by stipulated rules. Request of leniencies & exceptions and etc. fall upon deaf ears.

You are employed (or if you’re a very desperate student)

BoligPortal (http://www.boligportal.dk) is your best friend. You can also try these two Facebook groups: Housing in Aarhus and Lejligheder til salg og leje i Aarhus (“Apartments for sale and rent in Aarhus”)

Expect a rent of between 3,000–5,500dkk for a single room in a shared apartment

Expect a rent of between 6,000–10,000dkk for a two-room apartment; 8,500–15,000dkk for a three-room apartment. Prices are dictated mostly be location, not amenities. Studio apartments are uncommon to come by.

Avoid the peak periods of November–January, and July–September. These periods coincide with the start of university semesters, which means very impossibly stiff competition at price points that students go for, between 2,500–5,500dkk.

Try your luck, send applications in Danish (whenever possible), and to as many places as you want

Watch out for scams (see section below)

Unlike the sheltered existence of a student, you’re out and about in the adult world. That means that you don’t get curated listings that are guaranteed to be run by unscrupulous landlords or truthful, honest folks.

Typically, posters are swamped with a motherload of messages and are quickly overwhelmed by requests when their listing goes live. In other words, they do not have the time nor the incentive to process and reply every single message they receive.

The modus operandi is straightforward. Pick the first 25 respondents, interview those who made the second pass, and settle for the one special roommate whom they’ve made a personal connection with.

Finding themselves knee-deep in requests, posters usually resort to picking the first dozen or so of respondents, and wither the list down to a few, and settle for one thereon. unless they’re hit by an unlucky stroke of 25 completely untenable applicants. Write a quick, concise, and courteous message—but not overly intimate, we all know Scandinavians are uncomfortable with invasion of personal space and strangers in general.

Yup, this is good enough for me.

An alternative tip towards securing housing if you have a slightly padded wallet/bank account is to actually rent an entire share-friendly apartment (“delevenlig” in Danish), and then either (1) sublet the rooms to, or (2) find co-signers to the same contract with, other people by posting ads on the aforementioned Facebook groups or housing sites.

Typically you will never have an issue finding someone to occupy the rooms. The only drawback is that for going for the first option (which is more convenient), is that you have to pay a hefty deposit and prepaid rent upfront, which you can only recover after finding subtenants to your apartment.