It's no joke finding a house in Bologna. It is pretty easy to be discouraged, because the foreign students looking for a home are so many, and the market seems to be congested. Not counting, then, the young workers, who need to sleep somewhere and often can see little beardless student blow off their fateful bed. If you've been wandering around Bologna in search of flyers advertising apartments for rent and you're starting to get discouraged, maybe you should try doing some research on the Internet. There are several websites based in Bologna designed to help students find rooms to rent or share. Following is a list describing the main sites. Unfortunately these sites are available only in Italian.
1) www.postoletto.com contains two electronic bulletin boards, one called "cerco" or "looking" and the other "offro" or "for rent". Both boards are organized chronologically from the most recent arrival.
Small problem:
Updating of the site is left to the good sense of those looking and renting. Those posting ads in search of a room need to take them down once they've found a place. This is to save time for those posting "for rent" ads, who often find 50-some "looking" ads, of which only 6 or 7 are still valid. In any case, it's worth taking a look.
2) www.hotraslocato.it is designed for those who are moving from one apartment to another. First off, it provides some general guidelines with advice to help you avoid getting buried under boxes (if you're moving yourself) or getting ripped off (if you decide to hire a moving company). In addition - and this is the strong point of the site - there is an online helpdesk service that provides "bureaucratic" information (e.g. how to transfer your gas bill, when you need to inform the City for payment of the urban waste tax, how to deal with your credit cards, etc.), as well as offering several free services to users (sending faxes to professional associations, drafting letters to banks, sending notices to service providers). In the future, it will be possible to stipulate and cancel contracts, transfer gas, water, and telephone bills, all online.
A Must-See (but be warned: this is not an easy site to navigate, even though it's truly a goldmine).
3) www.cybercasa.com contains a real estate database specialized in rental of apartments of various sizes, single-rooms, and shares. The agency takes care of putting potential renters in contact with those who are offering (all online), without charging contracting parties with an agency fee (meaning one month's rent). The service is, of course, not entirely free of charge: Cybercasa charges a minimal fee based on what the client chooses.
4) www.unicasa.it: this database is very easy to consult. There is no contact with agencies, and it has the advantage of offering different ways to search. Each ad is tagged with the posting date and the number of people who have "visited" the ad (so you can get an idea of the competition). Here too, updating of postings is left up to users' good sense.
5) www.casa.it: this database is maintained by real estate agencies instead of private citizens, so only apartments, and not room shares, can be found here. The site is guaranteed to be up to date, but you'll have to pay the agency for their "trouble." On casa.it you can also find apartments for rent abroad and vacation rentals.
6) www.ilmiomutuo.it is designed for people who are looking to buy a house and need information on home loans. It's a fairly technical site, so you'll need to have some basic knowledge before you visit it. The information available shows the different kinds of loans you can set up and the relative prices, and gives offers and practical advice (the latter can be found on the F.A.Q. page). The following services are also offered: an online tool for calculating your maximum tax savings, the possibility of consulting an expert for advice on what type of loan to choose, and an excellent glossary. The site also includes a section (up since October) where you can choose and secure a loan without leaving your home. The clickable navigation bar on the left makes it easy to find your way around the site . Excellent for experts.
7) www.ecasa.it is a new site that offers services for both people looking for houses for sale or rent and those offering them. The database hasn't been perfected yet, as noted on the home page, and it is active mainly in the City of Milan and the surrounding province. However, the site includes a good glossary and gives lots of information on the taxes which must be paid when you buy or sell a house, as well as information on the "ICI" city property tax, and on home loans. This information is all contained on a page called Calcolatrici. Consult the risposte utili page for an overview of all the different functions of the site.
