How to Rent an Apartment Abroad as a Newcomer
Renting a home in a new country is a check of documents, money, and the person you are paying. There is no worldwide deposit cap and no worldwide guarantor rule. A landlord in one city may ask for a passport, immigration status, income, and a local guarantor. A landlord in the next city may not. Ask which papers that landlord requires, and get the answer in writing before you transfer anything.
The monthly rent belongs in the monthly cost-of-living budget. The deposit and any rent due before you move in belong in the one-time column, not in “typical rent.”
What you may be asked to show
Identity is usually a passport. Immigration status, proof of income, references, and a guarantor are requests, not a global list. A guarantor is someone who agrees to cover the rent if you do not. Some landlords accept one. Others want several months of rent upfront, which can itself be limited by local law. An offer letter or a work contract is evidence of income only if that landlord accepts it.
England, as a worked example
The rules below are England’s, checked on GOV.UK on 25 September 2026. They are not a template for every country. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own tenancy deposit schemes. Wales has different deposit-protection rules from the England section of the private-renting deposits page.
The most common private tenancy in England is now an assured periodic tenancy. GOV.UK’s tenancy deposit protection page says assured periodic tenancies replaced assured shorthold tenancies on 1 May 2026. A tenancy is an assured periodic tenancy when the home is your main accommodation, the landlord does not live there, and you have your own room. It is not one when the landlord lives in the property, the landlord is a council, the rent is over £100,000 a year, or the home is purpose-built student accommodation let to university students by a landlord who has signed the National Code. Choosing between that kind of residence and a private let is in university accommodation versus private rent. Living with the landlord and sharing a kitchen or bathroom can be an excluded tenancy or licence, with less protection from eviction.
On the private-renting deposits page, and on the assured periodic tenancy guide for tenants, the maximum tenancy deposit is up to 5 weeks’ rent if the annual rent is less than £50,000, and up to 6 weeks’ rent if the annual rent is £50,000 or more. A holding deposit to reserve the property can be up to one week’s rent. Those caps are the figures on those pages. They are not a worldwide maximum.
For an assured periodic tenancy, a money deposit must go into a government-approved scheme within 30 days. In England and Wales the named schemes on the deposit-protection overview are the Deposit Protection Service, MyDeposits, and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. A holding deposit is not protected until it becomes the tenancy deposit. After you and the landlord agree how much of the deposit you get back, the landlord must return it within 10 days.
The assured periodic tenancy guide also says a landlord must not ask you to pay rent before the tenancy agreement is signed. After it is signed, and before the tenancy starts, the usual maximum asked in advance is one month’s rent if you pay monthly, or 28 days’ rent if you pay weekly, unless a listed exception applies. Read that page before you treat a request for several months upfront as normal.
Before you pay
View the property, or use a live video with someone you trust if you cannot be there. Match the name on the payment account to the landlord or the licensed agent. Read who will hold the deposit and which scheme, if that country requires one. Sending money before a viewing is neither always legitimate nor always a scam. It is a risk until you have checked the address, the name, and the agreement. Keep the receipt.
The agreement, the inventory, and the bills
The tenancy agreement should say the rent, what is included, the length, and how the tenancy can end. An inventory, or condition report, records the state of the home when you move in. Photograph it the day you get the keys. Utilities are yours to open only if the contract says so. If heat and water are included, that fact belongs in the monthly budget as a zero on the utilities line, with the contract as the source.
