Renting a Room in Moscow

Finding a place to live in Europe’s largest city is an overwhelming task, here’s our handy guide to help you out:

Liden & Denz does a fantastic job providing accommodation for its students, in shared flats, family home-stays or studio-apartments. If however, you’re interested in finding private accommodation for your stay in Russia it can be difficult to know where to start – especially if your Cyrillic isn’t up to scratch! With twelve million inhabitants, countless new rooms come on the market each day, but some Russian accommodation websites are a little sketchy to say the least. Here’s our pick of the most reliable and user-friendly short-term rental sites for prospective students:

1. Air BnB

The international market leader for short-term lets is a popular option in Russia. The ‘worldwide alternative to hotels’ offers hundreds of new rooms daily, for all budgets, locations and lengths of stay.

Pros: Easy-to use app and the global brand means Air BnB are highly accountable if anything goes wrong with your stay

Cons: The only downside really is that – due to its popularity – Air BnB can get quite expensive in Russia, especially in high-summer season. Its prices are definitely above the market average so solo travellers and those on a budget may not find something for their price point.

2. Expat.ru

This is a is a virtual community for English speaking expats, which shares a variety of information and resources on life in Russian including an extensive marketplace of rooms available to rent for a variety of short and long term lets. Everything from studio flats to warehouses can be found here. You have to register to use the site first, but once that’s done you have access to all their resources – including their very useful ‘survival guide’ for life in Moscow.

Pros: English language website!

Cons: The website could use a re-design, it’s a little retro to say the least…

3. The Locals

A very un-Russian (i.e. modern) website with owners renting out rooms/flats directly. Its working language is Russian, but the site has an incredibly user-friendly interface – you can search by dates, by how many rooms you need or by proximity to your preferred metro station. The posts are very easy to scan through, with clear photos. As the name suggests some of the rooms are quite, ahem, quite ‘local’ – (read: nothing too fancy) but that also means this is a great website for those of you on a budget!

Pros: Affordable rooms

Cons: Russian-language website – (though in many ways this is a pro as it gives you a real incentive to practice your new language skills!)

4. Rooms and flats 

A Facebook marketplace page giving Muscovites a platform on which to rent out their flats without commission. There’s a huge selection of rooms, regularly updated.

Pros: Big selection, affordable prices

Cons: Russian-language (though see above for why this is a good thing 🙂 ) Rooms tend to be snapped up quite quickly once they’re posted, so keep your fingers on the buzzer!

So there are four of the best options – happy flat-hunting!

This post was brought to you by Kamila, currently studying Russian at Liden & Denz Moscow