About two weeks ago, Lausanne’s Place de la Riponne was turned into a giant camping with tents all over. And why is this? For a couple of years now, about 500 students are unable to find a place to live for the beginning of university courses in September.

Image taken from www.tdg.ch

I am currently looking for an apartment in Lausanne and however stressful it is, I still have a quite fun anecdote to share, something I had seen nowhere else before.

Yesterday, 5:30 pm, I was walking towards the building in which I was about to visit an apartment. Nothing new to that. But, when I finally found it and arrived at the door, three people were standing outside. At that moment, I guessed the building door was locked and they must have been waiting for the person to come and open for the visit. Wrong! A closer look through the glass door and I realized there was a long queue from the hallway all the way up the stairs to the door of the apartment. About 40 or 50 people queueing up in line to see the same apartment. I stood in line and waited, almost feeling as if I were waiting in line for the X-Factor casting given the amount of people. Everyone let out a nervous laugh each time the door opened and someone new joined the line.

What chance does one stand to get an apartment in those conditions?

How about you? Any similar anecdotes? Or maybe more luck?