The EPFL campus itself. Nothing is closer, and the M1 runs straight through it — but the immediate area is mostly university buildings, so evenings are quiet and the shops close early. Best if your timetable is on campus and you value the extra hour of sleep.
Landlords in Écublens ask for the same file as anywhere in the canton: a debt-collection extract, proof of income, and a guarantor who lives in Switzerland. Two of those are impossible before you arrive, which is why flatshares and private landlords are the realistic route from abroad.
Your deposit is capped at three months of net rent — up to CHF 3'450 at the top of the range here — and it is blocked in your own name, not the landlord's. How the deposit works
We co-sign leases so the file gets accepted, and we search the market when our own rooms are full.