Accommodation for EPFL students

Le campus est à Écublens, pas au centre de Lausanne — le métro M1 est le critère décisif pour la plupart des étudiants. Renens et Chavannes sont plus proches en trajet que le centre-ville.

Room near campus
CHF 700–1300Plus CHF 100–250 charges
Subsidised housing
6–9 monthsFMEL waiting list
Proof of funds
CHF 21'000Per year, non-EU, canton of Vaud
Nearest airport
Geneva (GVA)For your arrival

Where EPFL students actually live

Nous gérons des logements étudiants ici : ces chiffres sont ceux que nous voyons dans nos propres candidatures, pas une moyenne récupérée sur un portail. Les chambres à Écublens et Renens, près de l'EPFL, partent le plus vite ; Prilly et Malley sont moins chères et à un quart d'heure de plus.

Apply to FMEL the day you are admitted — the list runs 6 to 9 months, so it rarely helps for your first semester, but it costs nothing and it helps for your second. Everything else means the private market.

The deadlines that matter

File your residence permit dossier about three months before you arrive; processing runs eight to twelve weeks and nothing downstream starts until it is in. Register at your commune within fourteen days of landing, and sort health insurance within three months. The full timeline.

Campus is at Écublens. Choose your neighbourhood by commute rather than by postcode — a cheaper room forty minutes away costs you two hours a day for a year.

If the agency wants a guarantor

Most EPFL applicants get stuck on the same thing: an agency that wants someone resident in Switzerland to co-sign. We do that, for 3 months' rent — after we have read your file, and we do decline some.

Ask us about co-signing