Mexico City housing guide for exchange students.

Think Casa Condesa and similar:

• 25–30 rooms, each with a private bathroom, in a huge house.
• Everyone is an exchange student or international.
• The house is the pre-drink and afterparty location.
• You will never be alone; noise and mess are part of the package.

If you arrive knowing nobody and want to be surrounded by people 24/7, this is the strongest option socially.

Typical for places like Covive houses or La Reu:

• 10–15 rooms, often better maintained.
• You still have a strong social life (dinners, small parties, trips), but it’s easier to keep things clean and to sleep.
• Often nicer furniture, better cleaning, clearer rules.

This sits in the sweet spot for many students: social, but not zoo-level.

These are:

• Hangout apartments in Condesa / Escandón / Roma.
• “Rafael Chávez” style colocs near Ángel de la Independencia.
• Colocs you find through Facebook, uni groups, or via previous students.

You live like a normal city resident, with a few flatmates, and build your social life through uni, outings, and the Studcasa / Hangout groups.

A smaller part of our students choose:

• A private studio or long-term Airbnb – especially if: * They’re a couple, * They’re very sensitive to noise, * Or they’re a bit older.

You’ll make friends more at uni and events, and less in the kitchen at 2am.

In our student feedback, Covive looks like:

• Comfort & maintenance: Houses described as beautiful, well-equipped, with regular cleaning and details like potable water filters already installed.
• Size & vibe: Houses around 10–12 residents (for example, students in Del Valle Norte / Roma Sur / Chapultepec areas). It’s social, but you don’t feel like you live in a nightclub.
• Location: Typically Del Valle Norte, Roma Sur, Chapultepec-adjacent. Safe, residential, with metrobus and Ecobici bikes, and easy access to Polanco / Condesa.
• Commute: Often 45–90 minutes to universities like Ibero or Tec Santa Fe because of traffic.
• Price range in our feedback: Around 680–730€ / month at the time students answered – you’re paying for comfort + services.

Who this fits: If you want a high-quality house, good service, and still a social vibe, and you accept a longer commute and a higher rent, Covive fits very well.

La Reu appears in our feedback as “the exchange student house” tied to campuses like ITESM / Tec Santa Fe:

What our students report:

• Size & community: * A big house, 10–15 people, all students. * Super useful if you don’t know anyone and want built-in friends.
• Location: * Close to Santa Fe, so 10–15 minutes to campus instead of 45–90 from the center.
• Atmosphere with the owner: * The owner is a family landlord who is quite strict about parties because past cohorts went crazy. * You can still have big gatherings, but you need to warn her and respect the house.

Who this fits: If you go to Tec Santa Fe and want short commutes + a social student house, with a bit more structure than the super-chaotic 30-person houses, La Reu is a good match.

Connexion Mexico is both:

• A housing provider (student houses & colivings),
• And an organizer of trips / events for exchange students.

Their flagship in our feedback is Casa Condesa, a ~30-person house in Condesa.

What our students love about Casa Condesa:

• You arrive and you instantly have 25–30 friends.
• The house is in Condesa, which is one of the most walkable, lively, and safe areas for foreigners and students.
• Connexion & their ambassadors organize: * Weekend trips (Baja California, Puerto Escondido, etc.), * Integration weekends, * House events and parties.
• For many people, it becomes “the place to be” for exchange students.

What our students complain about:

We also have several very negative reviews for some Connexion houses (especially Casa Condesa):

• Rooms not cleaned at arrival (even very unhygienic situations).
• Washing machines broken for weeks; sometimes only 1 machine for ~30 people.
• Gas outages, so you can’t cook for days.
• Wi-Fi issues on multiple floors.
• Tension with management when students asked for compensation (threats of legal action, blaming students).
• Some students literally call it a “scam” and say it should cost half the price for the comfort level.

At the same time, others say “I’d still choose it again because of the experience”, fully aware it’s expensive and not very clean.

Our honest view as Studcasa:

• If your absolute #1 priority is social life, Casa Condesa can give you a crazy good exchange socially.
• If you are very sensitive to cleanliness, broken things, or conflict, we strongly recommend you look at: * Covive (smaller, better maintained), * Hangout apartments, or * Smaller local colivings / colocs instead.

If you choose Casa Condesa or another Connexion house, we really recommend you:

• Talk to at least 2–3 people currently living there,
• Ask directly about: Gas, washing machines, Wi-Fi this semester*, * How management reacted when things broke.

Hangout Mexico appears in our feedback in two ways:

• As a housing provider (flats & colivings, especially in Condesa / Escandón / Roma).
• As an organizer of free exchange-student parties and big trips (beach festivals, Puerto Escondido, Huasteca Potosina, etc.).

What our students tell us about housing with Hangout:

• Apartments around 500€/month in Condesa / Escandón, with: * Honest descriptions (no “scam” feedback in our data), * A landlord (Joao) who fixes things quickly, * Sometimes a bit old and not sparkling new, but overall fair.
• They throw parties every week and organize many trips, so even if your flat is mid-size (4–6 people), your social life is huge.

Who this fits: If you want a decent apartment close to the action plus a built-in pipeline of parties and trips, Hangout is a very solid middle ground between “Covive comfort” and “Casa Condesa chaos”.

Finally, a lot of students in our feedback skip the “big brands” and go for simpler local shared houses near their campus:

• ITAM: Houses like Hidalgo 26 – 12-person house, each room with private bathroom & small kitchen, rooftop, weekly cleaning, around 300€/month, and 3 minutes walk to campus.
• La Salle: Big houses in Roma Sur / Condesa with 20–30 students, 10–20 minutes to campus on foot.
• Anáhuac / Tec: Smaller colocs near campus for 250–350€, often found via Facebook or uni groups.

The usual strategy here is:

• Book an Airbnb or hostel for 1–2 weeks.
• Use the Studcasa group, uni groups, and Facebook housing groups to visit places in person.
• Choose once you’ve seen the house, met the landlord, and felt the area.

This is especially good if you want a very specific price or more local vibe, and are willing to do more work on arrival.

If we sum up our Mexico City data in one line, it’s this:

So use us. Use the feedback, DM people who lived exactly where you’re considering, and ask the “real” questions.