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“Stumbling blocks” and practical aspects of home search process in Ukraine

Moving to another country is exciting and the same time scaring. Expats face with different difficulties ranging from differences in culture, language, traditions and ending with the everyday aspects of living in a new location. One of the difficulties may be the search for housing in a new city. 
Finding an apartment for rent in Ukraine can be quite a challenge, especially if you do not know the language or you rent an apartment in Ukraine for the first time. There are many stumbling blocks and peculiarities foreigner may face with and should be aware of:

- Internet advertisements 

There is a huge diversity of the properties for rent in the internet. However, most of the information may be out of date. Moreover, many advertised apartments are fake one, just for client’s attracting.

- Old real estate fund

Most of tenants prefer to live in the city center where there are not so many newly build residential complexes. Many beautiful properties are in the old buildings with beautiful architecture. The area and the views are amazing, but the same time there are a lot of issues foreigner can face with. Most of those buildings have no elevator or it is a very small one, modest entrance, which might be dirty, without indoor parking and appropriate security. Most of the parking spaces are only available in the yard of the house. Also in such buildings, there are often problems with sewerage and water, since the pipes are very old and have not been changed for a long time.

- Real estate agencies’ involvement 

At the real estate market, it is a common practice to cooperate with the real estate agencies in finding the properties. Moreover, usually in negotiations process two real estate agents are involved: tenant’s agent and the owner’s one. So do not be surprised to see a lot of people during the property’s viewing.  The real estate agent fee usually is 50% (sometimes 100%) from monthly rent. The tenant usually pays it at the moment of the lease agreement signing.

- Pets’ issue 

If you have pets, it might be quite an issue to find the property. Most of the owners do not agree for pets. In case they do, they insist on double guarantee deposit. 

- Viewings  

While searching property it is better to arrange viewings during the working week. Most of the owners leave Kiev for weekends.   

- Utilities 

Do not forget about the utilities. Usually it is tenant’s responsibility. It is not a common practice to include communal fees and utilities into the rent fee. However, the owners may pay all bills and tenant reimburse these expenses based on bank receipts, which is quite a comfortable for the tenant. Standard utilities are electricity, hot water, cold water, gas and heating (from October to March). There can also be additional expenses such as parking, security, TV, internet, water delivery, concierge; gardener (if renting the house) etc.

Subsequently, the process of home search is not an easy task but having a good support behind your back, it can be easy and smooth.