Searching for a room for rent in Medellin can be very difficult due to lack of information and trust.
But you’re good! In this article we help you to find the best option for you! Before you start looking for a room, you have to know what you’re looking for.
The most important criteria to find an apartment or room for rent in Medellin
1. Do you want to live alone or do you want a shared housing?
If you prefer to live alone, you need a studio or an apartment. However, living with roommates has a lot of advantages too! If you want a fast integration in your new city, you should consider a shared house (= a VICO).
2. Where? Which neighbourhood?
You have to keep in mind that in a city like Medellin, traffic can be very heavy. That is why we always recommend to search near to your office or university. There are some trendy neighbourhoods for students, young professionals and digital nomads. For example, El Poblado, Laureles and Belén are the favourite ones. Here, you will find more information on the best neighbourhoods to live in Medellín.
3. What’s your budget?
You can find rooms of all prices and types. Since the prices depend a lot on the area, you should know your budget to know which neighbourhoods best fit your needs. However, rooms are usually between 400,000 COP to 2,000,000 COP (110 to 550 USD).
What are the best options to find a room for rent in Medellin?
VICO – Apartments and rooms to rent in Medellin
VICO (= shared housing) offers rooms in shared housing or private studios and apartments for rent in Medellín. All options are for medium or long term, not for tourists. Therefore, VICO is perfect for students, professionals or digital nomads. Since it has over 850 rental options in Medellín, the platform has something for all tastes. In addition, this company contributes to your integration in your new city with its VICO Community (your roomies, events to meet people…). Even if you arrive alone, you sure won’t stay alone.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Free – no service fee | Lack of coverage in the outskirts of Medellín. |
| Shared Housing: Easy to meet new friends: Students, young professionals, digital nomads | |
| It has many filters to facilitate the search | |
| Physical or online tour of the house for free | |
| Every owner and every house are verified |
AirBnB
This platform is very popular. AirBnB made life much easier for all those who were looking for a way to stay in local homes. It has a very easy searching process and a super friendly design. However, it focuses on tourists and not on people who are looking for a place to live in Medellin. In addition, its legal situation is not completely defined by the theme of hotels.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Pretty safe and very popular | Focused on tourism |
| User-friendly platform | More expensive rooms and additional costs by Booking |
CompartoApto
This page is one of the most used to find houses in Medellin. It has a large offer of rooms in any place of the city. Unfortunately, the information is not very transparent. Also, you have to register yourself before searching, which results in a lot of useless messages of offers (not to say spam).
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| A lot of offers | Information can be disorganized |
| Platform in Mobile and Desktop | Your information is public for people with plans and they can send you messages with non-relevant offers |
Facebook groups
The groups of rooms on Facebook are always a good starting point for your search. Indeed, there are more than 15 groups and each one gathers between 2,000 – 30,000 people. At the same time, it results in a lot of repetition and makes the search difficult because you cannot filter the different posts.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Lots of offer in several groups anywhere in the city. | Search can be very difficult because of the lack of filters |
| Platform in Mobile and Desktop | Many groups with hundreds of posts daily |
| Direct contact with people | Very informal |
Why a VICO?
As you could see, there are several good options. But they are not optimal because of their disadvantages. The VICO platform was created to combine everything you need to find accommodation to rent in Medellin in a simple and safe way. The apartments are checked, the owners are checked too. You can also talk to the owners privately before booking and you can pay online or in cash.
The biggest advantage is that you pay your deposit to VICO, and not to the owner. This way, VICO makes sure that the owner does not abuse the deposit and we return it to you in full at the end of your stay if you have not caused any damage to the apartment.
