I lived in a 9 m^2 apartment (with some extra storage) for 3 years (cheap rent in Paris was nice). It was mostly fine, except you end up hearing neighbors. If not for that, it was pretty good. It had tradeoffs tho, apartment was next to castle of Versailles so lots of nature near. If you are single and there are outside areas to escape to, small living was ok for me at least. Poverty vs choice of living small makes a lot of difference for how it is. Small isn't inherently bad, surroundings matter.
That’s cheap? Wow. If it’s close to Versailles it’s well outside Paris.
I’m now moving into a 17sqft mini apartment (just for four months), one metro station from the center of Hamburg (20 min to my very central workplace, including a ten minute bus ride to the next metro station plus walking and waiting times). I will pay 270 euro/month for it, including heat and electricity.
You can get more spacious apartments in similar places in Hamburg for about 500 Euro/month. If you share an apartment with roommates you might even pay less than 400 Euro.
Is Paris really so much more expensive, even well outside the city? I mean, Hamburg (and Munich and now also Berlin) are already making headlines for their crazy expensive rents.
Are you sure you have your units right? You can just put a bed on 17sqft, but you could not also have a door swinging inwards or even place to stand next to that bed (https://www.google.nl/search?q=17+sq+ft+in+sq+meters)
It’s a mini apartment with huge quotation marks around it. One 9 square meter living room (with cupboard, sofa, table), one 8 square meter bedroom, including a shower. Toilet and tiny kitchen niche in the tiny, 1 meter wide hall not included (for whatever reason) in the 17 square meters.
I still think the 270 Euro/month are pretty expensive for what it is, but luckily I only have to live there for four months (and in the summer, so I’m not going to be in there all the time and will rather try to enjoy the city).
