Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.05.2012, Qupperneq 4

Hello guys,
i was very glad to find your feature
about rental market in Reykjavik (and
capital area), since i was one of those
in the search of the rental apartment.
And because my search is over now, i
decided to share some of my experience
- maybe it will help some others in this
tough market.
It is not very long since i am a tenant
myself, this is my second rental place
- if i don't count the one i was renting
some ten years ago, just when i came to
Reykjavik, when i was renting a room
for 14.000 per month; an amazing
price even for those times.
You say in your article that rental
places are gone withing about three
days after they are advertised - in my
experience, they are gone within few
hours. Many people have the 'first
came, first got' strategy (that is my best
translation of 'fyrstur kemur, fyrstur
fá'). When i were calling around noon
for ads in that days' paper, it was usu-
ally already gone. But i had found that
most of the people would advertise on
as many places as possible: that means
on both Leigulistinn and Bland.is and
anywhere, where is free for them. And
it is very fast process, for the landlords.
Those in the search may feel like they
are choosing their future home, but
after all, we tenants are the selectee,
the selectors are the landlords. Very
logically, they can choose whom to rent,
when they have so many potential ten-
ants. And that's exactly what i had done,
i did not go for the best place i had seen,
but for the one which was offered to
me. Maybe i am weird, but for me the
search for a place means taking a look
at as many f lats as possible, even those
not suitable. Not viewing anything felt
like i was not searching hard enough.
I were surprised what everything
is on the market these days, people
would rent anything, only to be able to
pay their mortgages: i had seen cellars
and places never build as living space
turned into something what owners
called 'studio', sometimes even with
more than one room. And it is not very
hard to find such place in size of some
30 sq m for 80 thousand per month!
Yes, they can do that, because they will
find someone who will be forced to take
it, everyone has to live somewhere. And
the landlords are happy, they can still
pay for their huge houses and leasing
for all their cars (cos every member of
the family needs to have a car). And ev-
ery such family needs to have a tenant
so they could afford it all.
The mind of a landlord is changing
faster than the Icelandic weather, so
watch out for the promises, and don't
stop searching until you have a lease in
your hands. You can be told to be sign-
ing the lease in few days, and when you
call as arranged, 'your' f lat might be
already rented. And so don't be afraid
to do the same. If you find something
better during those few days, take it
right away, even if you had promised to
be renting to someone else. They might
do that to you, and if they could, they
surely would.
Considered all this, i am quite lucky
i found a place in about two months of
search. I don't believe i was my land-
lords first choice, but that doesn't mat-
ter. My rent is sky high (higher than
my salary, but don't tell my landlord,
please). At least i got proper state ap-
proved lease. During my search I've
heard from many about new law accord-
ing to which landlords pay 20% taxes
from the amount of rent they get, and
so very few are willing to give state ap-
proved lease. Or they are forced to rise
the rent of those 20%. I did not have to
take this place, but i got tired of search-
ing. What is perfect about it is the loca-
tion, and the landlord is from the same
place as me. That must be a good sign.
Even it can be hard sometimes, i
will never own any real estate again (i
owned the place together with my hus-
band), it is very hard to get a rid of it.
Renting gives me more freedom and is
kind of way of life. And i like moving.
With wish of good luck to anyone in
search for place to stay,
Milka
Dear Milka,
thank you for your letter, which man-
aged to be informative, f lattering and a
nice read in and of itself all at the same
time! Well done!
And thank you for your kind words.
They mean a lot, they really do.
And CONGRATLATIONS on finally
finding a place you like. If there’s one
thing we learned through research-
ing that whole apartment feature, it’s
that finding a suitable place to stay that
doesn’t cost ONE MILLION KRÓNUR
out of pocket can be really tough.
But it’s so weird that you enjoy moving.
You really do? Maybe if you were one of
those enlightened folks that have de-
nounced all earthly possessions (well,
you do seem to have denounced own-
ing an apartment) it would be a differ-
ent thing. If you’re such a person, your
position makes a lot of sense, actually.
You just have to throw your underwear
and socks into your overnight bag and
off you go. No problem! However, if
you own a huge piano, then you surely
must be lying about your enjoyment of
moving. Because moving huge pianos
around is no laughing matter. It’s re-
ally hard. Those fuckers are heavy. Even
moving something as soft and cushy as
a mattress can be a real headache. Es-
pecially if you’re moving to or from a
place that has lots of stairs. Like, with
the bedroom or piano room or whatever
on the top f loor. Of a four f loor build-
ing. With really narrow stairways. God-
damn, that’s annoying.
Someone really should have thought
of some sort of moving alternative or
helper or technology something by now.
It’s the 21st century goddamn it. We
can make our phones order us 12” pep-
peroni pizzas and a 2-litre bottle of coke
while massaging our butts, tracking
our heart rate and reciting the complete
works of Raymond Carver in the voice
of Leonard Nimoy. THERE ARE 3D
PRINTERS for crying out loud! THEY
CAN PRINT REAL OBJECTS! IN 3D!
Still, the process of moving a piano up
a f light of stairs remains the same as
it was around the time the piano was
invented in 1948. How barbaric! How
Neanderthal! Is this due to our society’s
built in disdain for manual labour and
the people that do it? Is this because the
only manual labour we value is... wait
we don’t really value manual labour or
the people that work it at all. Nope. The
only people we celebrate are nerds that
like to eat 12” pizzas and drink 2 litre
bottles of coke while listening to their
cell phones reciting the complete works
of Raymond Carver in the voice of Leon-
ard Nimoy while their heart rates are
being tracked and their 3D printer shits
out parts for a model airplane or what-
ever. We will celebrate muscle and phys-
ical strain, but only if its done for purely
cosmetic reasons. We’ll pay someone
ONE MILLION KRÓNUR to yell at us
while we lift multiple kilos of steel, if
the lifting is done for purely cosmetic
reasons. We will reward people that
look like browned sausage balloons af-
ter heaving multiple kilos of steel while
starving themselves or eating Powdered
Foetus Brand Heavy Proteins, but only
if they heaved that steel for no apparent
reason save for looking like browned
sausage balloons (mmm... sausage....).
No one is giving out awards for BEST
MOVER or BEST FISH-GUTTER or
BEST WAREHOUSE BOX STACKER,
but there are like seven different awards
for people who pretend they’re someone
else for a living (like that’s so difficult,
pretending you’re someone else? Bah!).
ANYWAY. Surely we can all agree that
something must be done for the plight
of movers everywhere. Some of those
nerds that are always inventing things
when they’re not playing around with
their iPads should invent something
for the movers. Like an anti-gravity
something. Surely, you engineers out
there can do something about that, even
though you never have to lift anything
yourselves. Quit being so selfish, engi-
neers!
OK here’s to the movers!
Say your piece, voice your
opinion, send your letters to:
letters@grapevine.is
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I read your story Spending the Night
with a Farmer (14.5.2010).
I'm traveling to the West Fjords by my-
self in May 2012 and I would love to
stay with the farm family Samuelsson
/ Samuelsdottir in Djupidalur.

I'm 60yrs old and truly enjoy sheep and
farming. This will be my 2nd trip to
Iceland and I intent to visit Iceland at
least once a year. Yes, I love Iceland.
I've already booked all my other lodging
with Icelandic Farm Holidays + hostels,
but this experience sounds perfect.

Do you have a way for me to contact
them? An address, website? Phoning
is difficult as I am in Colorado USA.
I guess I could phone once I arrive in
Iceland but I'd prefer to make arrange-
ments way ahead of time.

Hope you can help out and thank you,
Claudette

Hi Claudette,
I can't find an email address for them,
but I believe you could phone this num-
ber +354-434-7853 (which is the number
of the swimming pool in Djúpidalur)
and if that's not Guðrún and Leifur's
direct number, you could probably ask
to be put in touch with them. In fact
they are actually the only people living
in Djúpidalur.
Best Of Luck!
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