Friday, March 7, 2014

French lessons 101: Real estate vocabulary

Combing through real estate listings is never fun.  Combing through real estate listings in a foreign language can seem daunting.
Hopefully, this mini glossary will help!
  • Apartment size:
1 pièce:  1 room, i.e. a bedsit, or studio
2pièces: 1 room for sleeping (1 chambre), 1 living room (1 salon), i.e. a 1 bedroom
3pièces: 3 rooms, most often 2 bedrooms and a living room.  But it could also be a 1 bedroom (1 chambre), with a living room (1 salon) in a dining room (une salle à manger).
Partagent une salle de Bain (SDB): share a bathroom
  • Different parts of a buiding:
RDC or rez de chaussée: ground floor
Sous-sol: basement
  • Different kinds of places to live
Villa basse: single story house
Villa duplex: 2 story house

Meublé: furnished
Location meublée: furnished rental
  • Features you may want in your new place
Chauffe-eau: hot water heater
Fosse septique: septic tank
Salle d'eau: bathroom with a shower
WC: toilet
WC séparé: toilet separate from shower room
Baies vitrées: bay windows
Climatisation/ splits: aircon
Cuisine équipée: kitchen that has cabinets and some appliances (usually a stove)
Grande pièce à vivre: large living room area
  • What kind of place is this?
Très haut standing: beautiful
Haut standing: quite nice
Bon standing: nice, but maybe a bit older
Moyen standing: everything you need, but could use some sprucing up

Résidence sécurisée: in a gated building, or community
  • Be afraid:
En travaux: currently being renovated
à la charge du locataire: at the tenant's expense.
remise en état/ remettre en état:  needing to be renovated (difficult to know how much or how little work is needed)
En finition/ travaux de finition: plumbing and electrical is done.  Fixtures need to go in.  Hard to know how far along that process is.


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