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Apartment Hunting on top the Madrid Tour Bus

Apartment Hunting on top the Madrid Tour Bus

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I know there are a lot of new students  who have recently arrived to IE and are in the process of finding a place to call home.   We’ve discussed the various neighborhoods we’ve lived in, but I’d also suggest seeing the city on top of a Madrid Vision Tour Bus to help in their apartment hunt.

I’ll admit, I usually avoid these double decker tour buses in most cities and opt to tour on foot, but my parents were visiting, and I let them pick the activity for the day.  Plus, they were a little jetlagged from the flight the day before, so walking anywhere was out of the question.

The Madrid Vision has two tours one of Historic Madrid and the other of modern Madrid and each tour last about 75mins.  The adult one day pass is 17.00 euros, and for the children ages 7-12 or Seniors 65+ it’s 8.50 euors, and children under 7 are free.  They also have two day passes, and discounts if purchase tickets online.  We purchased our tickets in person by the Prado Museum, but there is also a kiosk in Sol.  The nice thing is that you can hop on and off either line, they have the audio tour in English and 6 other languages and their buses come by every 10mins.

I admit even after living in Madrid almost a year,  this was still a nice way to see the different neighborhoods, and get a feel for the way the city is laid out and from vantage point that you don’t have as a pedestrian.  It could also help those who are new to Madrid trying to figure out where to live, because you can tour various parts quickly and see how busy or noisy an area can be day or night.  If you’re fortunate enough to have already found a place, then if anything it’s nice treat for anyone who comes to visit you, jetlagged or not.

Madrid Vision Various ticket kiosks throughout the city, or you can purchase your tickets online

Neighbourhood: Chamberi

Neighbourhood: Chamberi

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I don’t always love living in Madrid, but I do love living in Chamberi. This may sound strange, but I feel like I have picked the best barrio (neighbourhood) for my charachter. Let me explain.

Chamberi is popular for young professionals and there are many ‘up and coming’ areas within this barrio. That means that it’s got some great stuff, but not everyone knows about it yet. For example, the El Mundo Restaurant awards, had many winners in Chamberi.

A centre point for the area is Plaza Olavide. This is a mainly pedestrian area with a fountain in the centre, benches and playgrounds, all surrounded by some lovely cafes, restaurants and shops. I love the tea shop that sells loose leaf teas and coffee. And the cafes are perfect for whiling away weekends chatting with friends over a few drinks and tapas, or in the cool of the summer evenings sipping vermouth (my new favourite tipple).

Also I love the market, even more so after 8 months of getting to know the shop keepers (even with my limited Spanish) I get a friendly face and they let me know when they get new and exciting things in.

Plus there is everything you need in Chamberi – several supermarkets, including a giant Carrefour at Quevedo; beauty shops, hardware shops, good metro connections (I am less than 5mins walk from Iglesia, Quevedo and Canal which are all on different metro lines) etc etc.

In fact, working from home, with my gym a 15min walk away and many friends in the area, I rarely have a need to leave. And when I do I can usually walk there – Sol takes me around 25mins, Malasaña 10 mins and Chueca 20mins.

Casas Rurales

Casas Rurales

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Many of the people we know are living in Madrid as MBA students and have to watch their spending a bit. As you may have seen from our posts we like to go away a lot. Some people reading this will only be in Spain for a short time and will want to make the most of travelling around the country – which we highly recommend!

When you are booking trips, consider staying in Casas Rurales instead of hotels. Casas Rurales literally translates as ‘rural houses’ but is in fact bed and breakfast type accomodation which ranges from people who have an annex on their house with an extra couple of rooms, to what I would consider a small hotel but that doesn’t serve meals apart from breakfast. In England they would be known as B&Bs (bed and breakfasts).

Whilst Cases Rurales can be in towns, they are often on the outskirts, or even in the countryside so make sure you check out exact locations before you go. As car hire is so cheap, we are usually able to get around fairly easily but this can be difficult if you get the train.

There are two main advantages to Casas Rurales: Firstly it is price as they are often less than half the price of hotels. Secondly, the hosts are usually couple and families who are genuinely nice people who have lived in the are a long time and are incredibly friendly. They can usually give you great tips on the region.

To find Casas Rurales I usually start with a quick google search of the town’s name and then ‘casas rurales‘. It may be easier to go straight to the listings, useful websites include:

Glossary

Destino – destination

Provincia – region/province

Poblacion – town (literally speaking: population)

Habitacion(es) – room(s)

Noche(s) – night(s)

Tiene una habitación para tres noches desde el 23 de abril? – Do you have a room for three nights from the 23rd April?


Ikea and other household shops

Ikea and other household shops

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When you move to Madrid, it is likely that there will be some things you need to furnish your new abode.  As I think I have mentioned before, the answer to any question that has the word ‘shop’ in it is: El Corte Ingles. It really does have everything you could possible want (ok, I haven’t seen a pet shop in there but you get the idea).  But as I have also mentioned, it’s one of the most expensive shops in Spain –  so almost everyone I know who has moved to Madrid has done an IKEA run within their first few weeks.

Before I get on to the details of IKEA in Madrid, I want to flag up two other options which, if I had my time again, I would check out first as they are far more central and easier to do a couple of trips to:

1. Al Campo (near Metro Pio XII): This is an enormous superstore that has everything you could possibly want on the smaller items. It even has a bar for a mid-shop drink if it all gets a little too overwhelming.

2. El Universo del Hogar on Calle de Bravo Munillo (just north of Calle Fuencarrel): This has all the small household items that you may need from glasses to towel stands to curtains. It is on three floors and is easy to navigate.

Now, back to IKEA. There are three IKEAs in Madrid (see below), all of which are on the outskirts of the city and therefore pretty much at the end of metro lines. It takes around 30-45mins to get to any of them depending on where you live in Madrid. I would advise taking the metro there and getting the big items delivered. One friend drove up to Ikea one Saturday but turned away after 30mins of queueing just to get into the car park.

It isn’t possible to do an internet order, but you can do your shop, pay and then get everything delivered within a pretty quick turnaround (hours rather than days). To make the most of peoples’ paypackets, it’s open on the first Sunday of every month too.

Here are the options, the first being the most popular amongst people I know:

IKEA en Ensanche de Vallecas: Metro Line 1, Las Suertas (for this IKEA come out the metro and turn back on yourself, walk towards and then through the large shopping mall – as soon as you enter the mall, it is well signposted)

IKEA Alcorcon: Metro Line 12, Parque Oeste

IKEA San Sebastian de los Reyes: Metro Line 10, Reyes Catolicos (this is a 10minute walk from the metro stop)

Moving house in Madrid – granny flat to urban apartment

Moving house in Madrid – granny flat to urban apartment

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I hadn’t had a great start to moving to Madrid and I realised that I needed to reflect and get things into perspective – why wasn’t I enjoying this amazing city? I needed to change things that weren’t making me happy (and I wasn’t ready to give up on my boyfriend just yet) so I decide next in line was the Granny apartment. I really hated it. Sitting in there every day on my own I decided that my happiness was more important that not offending my boyfriends choice of apartment, and thus justified a move to a nice apartment.

And it wasn’t just the apartment. I didn’t really like the area. Avenida de America is great for transport but that is about it. Madrid is a small city and I knew I should be able to find somewhere that was near the business school for John, but also in walking distance from the city for me. I started asking my new IE friends about where they lived and after a couple of local walking tours, I found a place I wanted to be: Plaza Olavide.

When I mentioned the lack of taste in decor, I really am not joking. What is it with wood panelling and cork board flooring in this country? Trust me, I am not stylish but this went even beyond me. I searched the two main websites: idealista.es and fotocasa.es, setting up searches on both so that I knew immediately as something was posted (beware though, I haven’t figured out how to stop the idealista emails!) I wasn’t aware of the English speaking agency D’Flat that Courtney used, that could have been helpful.

But then I found something perfect. It had white walls, a modern kitchen (I had no oven previously, a common occurence in Madrid), even a wood burning stove. It had the necessary two bedrooms, plus a kind of open loft that would be fine for guests to sleep in for a weekend.

Knowing that half the people just about to start the course (that’s 200 people) were looking for one and two bed apartments within walking distance of the school, I virtually stalked the landlord until I could get to see it. I fell in love with it – it had recently been refurbished, the landlord was willing to provide some furniture, it was in the right area, and it was the right price. Whopeeee

Being Spain, not everything can go that smoothly. The landlord wanted to do things semi officially. Understandably he was a little nervous about just renting it to people he didn’t know, yet neither of us particularly wanted to pay agents fees (yes, you both pay for the privilege). There is a great scheme set up by the government for this situation. It is called MuniMadrid and they effectively act as the agent. They draw up the contract and inventory for signing, and of course  check your credentials. Where we ran into problem number 2.

As part of the scheme, you have to prove a certain level of income – it’s basically to ensure the rent isn’t more than one-third of your salary and can therefore afford it. You must be able to prove this income within Spain, for at least the last three months. Or, we found out that you can have a guarantor within Spain who needs to do the same, only they must have more income to ensure they can pay both their and your rent (IE students note that the school won’t do this). This posed an enormous problem – John didn’t have a job anymore, I wasn’t paid in Spain and we didn’t know anyone in Spain that we could ask.

However, it turns out that there is another governmental organisation out there which is part of La Corte de Arbitraje. This organisation takes three month deposit, asks you to sign a couple of simple forms and then if for any reason rent isn’t paid in any given month, they evict you and the landlord gets the money. Maybe not that simply but effectively that’s what happens. I don’t have, and hope not to have, any experience of this.

So, for me that was one month’s deposit on the apartment (usual ware and tear type deposit, paid back when you move out providing that the apartment is in decent shape), plus three months deposit for not having a guarantor. Four months total, plus the first month’s rent does seem a lot BUT I have heard that some (one person being a Spanish teacher at IE) that they can ask up to eight months! So come prepared.

It took a while, and a lot of paperwork but I feel happier that it is a government scheme that works for both the landlord and tenant. And I LOVE my apartment. Really, for the first two months, I barely left it except to the go the gym which I equally love (more on that in the next post).

Some key points:

  • Language: alquiler (to rent); el depósito (the deposit); amueblado (furnished); desamueblado (unfurnished)
  • Websites: Idealista and Fotocasa