Mexico City Housing Guide for Exchange Students

1. Big picture: how housing in Mexico City really feels (according to our students)

From all the feedback we’ve collected for CDMX, students rate:

• Overall exchange: 8.9 / 10
• Housing: 3.2 / 5
• Social life: 4.7 / 5
• Travel: 4.9 / 5

So when we look at our data, your exchange in CDMX is almost guaranteed to be amazing – but housing is where the biggest disappointments (and the biggest wins) happen.

What our students consistently tell us:

• CDMX is not ultra-cheap for housing anymore, especially in Roma / Condesa / Polanco. External market data shows rents in central, trendy areas have risen sharply since 2020, especially with gentrification and short-term rentals.
• Most exchange students choose social life over comfort. A lot of them willingly accept a messy 30-person house in Condesa to be in the middle of everything.
• Traffic is brutal. 45–90 minutes to campus is totally normal at rush hour.
• The same neighborhoods keep coming back: Condesa, Roma, Juárez, Polanco – and then the various university zones (Santa Fe, Tlalpan, Anáhuac areas, ITAM area).

In practice, you’re choosing a spot on this spectrum:

comfort 🛏️ / budget 💸 / social chaos 🎉 / commute time 🚌 / language immersion 🇲🇽

We’ll walk you through it.

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2. Where to live in CDMX: Condesa vs campus, Roma vs “far but cheap”

2.1 The main zones our students actually pick

From our Mexico City feedback, we see the same neighborhoods again and again:

• Condesa & Roma Norte/Sur – green, walkable, full of cafés, bars, and other exchange students. Many guides also rank them as among the safest and most popular areas for visitors and expats.

• Juárez / Zona Rosa – close to Reforma, lots of bars, very central.

• Polanco – more upscale, expensive, safe, with museums and parks.

• Benito Juárez / Del Valle – more local/residential, still central enough, popular with some ITAM / La Salle / Covive houses.

• Campus zones:

  • Santa Fe (Tec & Ibero),
  • Tlalpan / south (Tec campus south),
  • Anáhuac Norte / Sur,
  • ITAM area (San Ángel / San José Insurgentes, etc.).

Our students also mention Tepito a lot… but only as a place to visit the market in a group during the day if you go at all, not where you want to live.

2.2 The real trade-off: central vs near campus

Most of our students end up in one of two setups:

Live in…	What that actually means day-to-day
Condesa / Roma / Juárez / Polanco	You live in the middle of cafés, brunch spots, bars, parties, and other exchange houses. You meet people easily, you can walk to parks and rooftops. But you’ll probably do 30–60+ min Ubers to get to most universities.
Near your campus (Santa Fe, Tlalpan, Anáhuac zones, ITAM area)	You wake up later, walk or take a 5–15 min ride to uni, and don’t suffer traffic daily. But you Uber 30–60 min to Condesa/Roma when you go out, and your area is often calmer, less “Instagram Mexico City”.

How this shows up in our feedback:

• Tec / Ibero / Anáhuac students Many choose Casa Condesa or other Condesa/Roma houses and accept 45–90 minutes of commute to Santa Fe / south campuses because they want central life and big exchange houses.
• ITAM students Some live in Benito Juárez / close to ITAM with 3–5 minute walks to class, rooftop, private bathroom, etc., for ~300€. Then they Uber to Roma/Condesa to go out.
• La Salle students Here it’s easier: Condesa / Roma Sur are already pretty close to campus, so you can get both nightlife and a short-ish commute.

There’s no “right” choice. The question is: do you prefer to live in the party / café area and commute to uni, or live near uni and Uber into the center when you want?

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3. The main housing types in our Mexico City feedback

In Mexico City, our students usually end up in one of four types of places:

3.1 The giant student house (25–30+ people)

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.

3.2 Medium-sized colivings (10–15 people)

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.

3.3 Classic shared flats (3–8 people)

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.

3.4 Studios / long-term Airbnbs

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.

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4. The “famous names”: Covive, La Reu, Connexion / Casa Condesa, Hangout

These are the housing names you’ll see nonstop in the Mexico City Studcasa groups. Here’s how they actually show up in our feedback, plus where to find them.

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4.1 Covive – coliving for comfort lovers

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.

Covive
Website: https://covive.mx
Typical format: coliving houses (10–15 people) in central-ish, safe neighborhoods
Contact often shared by our students: Daniela – +52 55 4635 6904 (WhatsApp)

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4.2 La Reu – the “student house” near Tec Santa Fe

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.

La Reu
Type: big student house / coliving near Tec Santa Fe
Run by: local family enterprise
How students usually get it: contact shared by Tec’s international coordinator or by previous students
Student-shared WhatsApp (owner): Itza Martínez – +52 55 5436 6895 (say you come from us, she'll know!)

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4.3 Connexion & Casa Condesa – legendary social life, mixed comfort

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.

Connexion / Casa Condesa
Housing site: https://housing.conexionmexico.com.mx
Main house in our data: “Casa Condesa” (≈30 rooms) in Condesa
Typical price reported by students: ~500–600€ / month for the cheaper rooms
WhatsApp contact (from our student feedback): +52 33 1604 0565

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4.4 Hangout Mexico – housing + free student parties + trips

Hangout Mexico appears in our feedback in two ways:

1. As a housing provider (flats & colivings, especially in Condesa / Escandón / Roma).
2. 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”.

Hangout Mexico
Website: https://www.hangoutmexico.com.mx
Events / community: they run free student parties + trips for internationals
Instagram (very active): https://www.instagram.com/hangoutmexico
How housing works: rooms & flats for 3–6 people in Roma / Condesa / Escandón areas

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4.5 Local colocs near your university

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:

1. Book an Airbnb or hostel for 1–2 weeks.
2. Use the Studcasa group, uni groups, and Facebook housing groups to visit places in person.
3. 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.

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5. How much you’ll actually pay (and why it’s not 300€ in Condesa anymore)

Putting our student feedback together:

• Big social houses (Casa Condesa, etc.) in Condesa/Roma: Around 500–600€ / month for the cheaper rooms.
• Covive / high-end colivings: Often 650–750€ / month, with better equipment & cleaning.
• Hangout apartments & mid-sized colocs in central areas: Roughly 450–550€ / month.
• Campus-side colocs (ITAM, Anáhuac, Tec): Around 250–350€ / month.
• Mérida coliving with pool (for comparison): ~250€ / month in our data.

On top of our own feedback, recent analyses show that average rents in Mexico City keep rising, with central areas like Roma / Condesa / Polanco seeing some of the fastest increases due to gentrification, high demand, and short-term rentals.

So when you see old blog posts saying “you can find a nice room in Condesa for 300€”, that’s usually before the big post-pandemic rent jumps.

For your monthly budget in CDMX, our students commonly end up around:

• ~250–350€ → campus coloc / further out, not traveling constantly.
• ~400–700€ → central neighborhoods, depending on the provider and comfort.
• Total all-in (rent + life + trips) often around 1000–1100€ / month if you travel a lot and go out frequently.

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6. How we recommend you choose (step-by-step, Studcasa style)

Here’s how we’d do it ourselves, using our platform and everything our students told us.

Step 1 – Choose your area strategy

Ask yourself:

• Do I want to live in Condesa / Roma / Juárez / Polanco, walk to bars & parks, and accept commute + higher rent?
• Or do I want to live near my campus, save time, and Uber into the center when I feel like it?

If you’re at La Salle, you can have both (Condesa / Roma Sur are already close to campus).

Step 2 – Choose your social intensity

Be as honest as possible:

• “I want to live with 25–30 people, constant plans, noise, parties.” → Think Casa Condesa / big Connexion houses.
• “I want friends but also sleep.” → Think Covive, La Reu, medium colivings, Hangout flats.
• “I prefer a small flat (3–6 people) and I’ll be social outside the house.” → Think Hangout apartments, local colocs, some campus houses.

Step 3 – Set a realistic budget

Using everything above:

• If you want Condesa or Roma + social housing, expect 500–700€ / month.
• If you want near campus & simpler housing, you can aim for 250–400€ / month.
• If you want high comfort (Covive) in a central area, plan 650€+.

Once you know your area, intensity, and budget, your options narrow down very nicely.

Step 4 – Build a shortlist (2–3 concrete places)

Typical shortlists we see:

• Option A: Casa Condesa – Connexion (max social, lower comfort, Condesa).
• Option B: Covive house (higher comfort, medium social, good area).
• Option C: Hangout flat in Condesa / Escandón (mid comfort, mid social, huge event/trip network).
• Option D: Local coloc near your uni (short commute, more local vibe, cheaper).

You don’t need 10 options. Pick 2–3 that truly match your priorities.

Step 5 – Use the Studcasa feedback properly

This is where we help you the most.

For each option on your shortlist:

1. Go to the Mexico City page on Studcasa and open the Feedback section.

2. Search for:

   • Your university, and
   • The house/provider name (e.g. Covive, Connexion, Casa Condesa, Hangout).

3. DM 2–3 students per option and ask concrete questions:

   • “How long did it take door-to-door to get to Tec / Ibero / ITAM / La Salle at rush hour?”
   • “Did you have no-gas / no-washing-machine / no-WiFi periods? For how long?”
   • “How clean was it realistically?”
   • “Would you book exactly the same place again, knowing everything you know now?”

That last question is powerful. The answer is often very honest.

Step 6 – Decide: book from home or find on arrival

Both strategies work; which is better for you depends on your risk tolerance.

• Book from home if:

  • You want guaranteed housing before arrival.
  • You’re going for a known option (Covive / Casa Condesa / Hangout) and you’ve spoken with current or recent tenants who confirm it’s still okay.

• Book 2 weeks of Airbnb / hostel and search on-site if:

  • You’re aiming for a specific coloc near campus or budget cap.
  • You want to see the neighborhood and landlord with your own eyes.
  • You’re comfortable doing 1–2 weeks of visits and uncertainty at the beginning.

Many of our students do a mixed version: book a place for the first month, keep your eyes open, and move if you find something better.

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7. Mistakes & red flags we see again and again

To finish, here’s what we see most often go wrong, and what you should watch for.

Typical mistakes in our Mexico data:

• Booking a 6-month lease without talking to a single previous tenant.

• Underestimating traffic and then taking 7:00 AM classes while living in Condesa.

• Forgetting about the “French bubble” effect:

  • Many big houses = 90–100% French/European. Great for comfort, less great for Spanish.

• Assuming “Mexico is cheap” and then being shocked by central rents + travel every 2 weeks.

• Paying large sums in cash without a clear contract or receipts.

Housing red flags:

• The landlord or provider refuses to show you recent photos/videos of your exact room.
• They don’t want you to speak to current tenants.
• Contract is only in Spanish and they won’t explain basic clauses (duration, deposit, reasons they can keep your money).
• Pressure tactics: “You have three hours to pay everything or it’s gone” when you still have questions.
• Multiple recent students mention the same problem (no gas / broken washing machine / no Wi-Fi for weeks) and say it was never properly fixed.

When you see repeated patterns in feedback, trust that more than a glossy website.

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8. Final word from us at Studcasa

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

Students almost never regret choosing a place that matches their personality, but they often regret not talking to alumni first.

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

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Made with ❤️ by the Studcasa Team