Finding an apartment in Amman
How renting actually works here — where to look, what an agent costs, what goes in the contract, and the things worth checking before you hand over a deposit.
Book two or three weeks somewhere temporary and find your flat once you are here. Photographs hide almost everything that matters — the noise, the water pressure, the walk to the shop, whether the heating works. Nobody who rents remotely in Amman is glad they did.
Where people actually look
Amman has no single dominant rental website. Most students end up using two or three of these at once.
How the process runs
Choose the neighbourhood before the flat
Decide where you want to be, then look only there. Searching the whole city at once produces a shortlist you cannot compare, and Amman's traffic makes a distant bargain expensive.
Our guide to the neighbourhoods covers what each area is like and roughly what it costs.
See it in person, ideally twice
Once during the day and once in the evening if you can. Street noise, parking, lighting and who is around change completely between the two.
Agree the rent, and what it includes
The single most common misunderstanding here. Ask directly whether water, electricity and internet are included, because a room advertised at 250 without bills can cost more than one at 300 with them.
Rent is usually paid monthly. Expect to be asked for a deposit, and agree in writing what returns it to you at the end.
Get a proper written contract
Not optional, and not only for your protection. You will need the rental contract, and a copy of your landlord's ID card, if you extend your stay beyond ninety days. Students discover this at the security centre and then have to go back to a landlord they barely know.
Ask for the ID copy when you sign, not months later. See our visa and residency page for the full list of what you will need.
Photograph everything on the day you move in
Existing marks, appliances, meter readings. Five minutes now settles any argument about the deposit later, in any country.
Check before you sign
None of this is unique to Jordan. It is simply the list people wish they had used.
Hot water and heating. Amman winters are colder than visitors expect, and many flats heat one room rather than all of them.
Water supply. Ask how the tank is filled and how often. This matters more here than in most cities.
Which floor, and is there a lift. Amman is built on hills, and a fourth-floor walk-up is a different flat in July.
Windows and daylight. Ground-floor flats facing a wall are cheap for a reason.
Internet. Whether a line exists already, or you will be arranging one yourself.
The walk to the nearest shop, bakery and taxi. You will make it every day.
The Arabic that helps
You can do all of this in English, but these few sentences change how the conversation goes.
What we can and cannot tell you
We help students find housing every term, so the process above is what we see working. But we are a language school, not an agency, and we do not act for landlords or take commission from anyone.
Prices move, and the same flat is sometimes offered at two prices to two people. If a figure sounds wrong to you, it probably is — ask us before you agree to it.
Last reviewed: September 2026.
Living in Amman: the practical guides
The questions our students ask most often before they arrive.
Or let us take this off your hands
We keep a list of homes near the school — host families and private flats, each one arranged through us rather than through an agency. If you would rather arrive to somewhere already sorted, start there.