The following question & answer was posted on Tuesday October 17th 2006.
I'm coming to live in Bermuda in a few months. My company isn't providing me with accommodation after the first two months and I want to know what the letting market is like out there. Is there any advice you can give me?
Dorcas Roberts provided the following answer:
At present Bermuda suffers from an ?affordable? housing crisis; a poll conducted in 2004 found that nearly a third of residents paid close to half their salary on rent. Due to this highly priced rental market some companies offer overseas workers housing allowances. Unfortunately, if you are like myself and many others looking for something reasonably priced, there are cheaper accommodations to be had, but they are highly sought after and are hard to come by.
There is information on the prices you can expect to pay at www.bermuda-online.org. Traditional methods of finding accommodation exist, such as going to estate agents but these tend to be expensive.
I found my present flat in the classifieds of Bermuda?s daily newspaper, the Royal Gazette www.theroyalgazette.com, but I had to be quick. The day I viewed the flat the landlord?s phone was ringing off the hook and we were lucky she liked my husband, as she had a lot of potential tenants to choose from.
There is also a Bermuda classifieds website, www.e-moo.com, where a range of rentals and house shares are advertised. Check them everyday and again, be quick. This site is also good for picking up second-hand furniture and scooters, etc.
Due to Bermuda?s small size and close community, word of mouth is an effective tool, not just for finding a flat, but for a lot of things. This was how I found my first flat in Bermuda. Make sure that everybody you meet in the first couple of months of your stay is aware that you are looking for a place ? and what you are prepared to pay for it.
Each legal housing unit in Bermuda has an ?assessment number?, which means that the flat has an independent electricity metre and car permit. You can check out the assessment number and annual rental value at www.landvaluation.bm. This will help you to make sure that your potential flat comes with an assessment number, and avoid sharing the fate of friends of mine who ended up paying for their landlord?s electricity bill.
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