Sourcing Accommodation in Iceland?

It is a little tougher to find the sort of flat you're looking for (they tend to call them "luxury apartments" here as far as I can tell). Particularly if you're looking for something big enough for a family, the market is pretty thin.

That said, it's not impossible. I can't speak to the availability of estate agents or the like here. Most people seem to find housing  either through someone they know or through one of the available online listings (leiga.is, leigulistinn.is (requires registration/payment), and a couple of others I don't recall offhand).

I'd hit leiga.is and narrow the search by cost. Anything under about 130.000 ISK might not be up to the standards you're looking for, but I'm reading quite a bit into your wording there. I pay between 140.000 and 150.000 for a very nice 1-bedroom apartment in 105. I also looked at a spacious and quite nice 3-bedroom place in 107 that was 130.000 (unfurnished), but it fell through when the owner sold the building.

In any case, this might give you some idea of the kind of housing that's available.

leiga.is is pretty slim pickings at the moment, but leigulistinn.is (costs a bit under 4000isk for a month of access) seems to have more.

at the moment I'm living in what would probably qualify as a luxury apartment on one of the most lovely streets in postcode 101. It's in an old building but newly renovated, huge view, garden, and 4 rooms (plus the kitchen and bath). I found it on leiga.is last spring.

regarding not offending the members of this board, it seems that there are very few regular posters who live here long term, and from what I can gather, none are students.

Thanks guys, appreciate your input - so does that mean that most expats would avoid going to the real estate agencies directly? Are you saying that most searches (and available properties) are available online?

I had one contact who said there was so little around he actually spotted a house for sale and apprahced the landlord to see if he was willing to rent it out instead?!

ECS, your place sounds great!

- Without giving the game away (and I am sure you don't want to share too much personal data) can you give me a ballpark on what something like that would cost?

there isn't really the same structure in rentals as many countries, where there are companies that own many apartments and make a business managing and renting their properties.

most rentals are owned by individuals and as a result, want to meet & know the person who is going to be living there. This also means that it's less likely that contacting a real estate agency will yield a wide selection of properties.

The market's a bit better for renters these days- before the crash it was pretty insane with that kind of behaviour more what I'd expect. I knew a several people living in garages that had been sketchily modified to be "apartments" back then. Still, the truth remains that a personal connection and word-of-mouth networking generally is the best way to find the really nice apartments here.

to give you an idea of what it's been like during my time renting:

1) owned by a couple going abroad for a year, found through leigulistinn
2) owned by a fisherman who was never around and had bought it as an an investment, found through leigulistinn
3) flatshare with a friend who owned the place
4) owned by a woman who was studying in Denmark for a year, found via an internal university mailing list that a friend forwarded to me
5) a flatshare with a friend who owned the place
6) apartment in the same building as the owner's flat, found through connections at a dinner party
7) apartment in the same building as owner's flat, found through leiga.is

so, my experience has been about half word-of-mouth and half through rental sites, in which case it's either been a short-term lease, or in the same building as the owner. It's not a place to be anonymous