So you’re thinking of moving here? Here are 6 things to help you find a place to live in Bishkek.rt
Join the Expats in Bishkek Facebook Group. There are two Expat Facebook groups in Kyrgyzstan. One is titled “Expats in Bishkek”, the other “Expats in Kyrgyzstan”. Both groups post listings of apartment and house rentals but the Bishkek group is more targeted and tends to have a livelier discussion. This is your top place to find a place to live. People will post photos and prices in the Group. You can comment and ask others what they think of the price and location which is the best part.
As a rule of thumb, you can find a decent one bedroom apartment for $300 to $600 USD / month, generally including internet, utilities etc. While the range varies, it depends on how new the apartment is, how close it is to the city centre, if there is a security guard etc. If you have a roommate, you might even pay as little as $200 USD. If your flat is $500 to $600 USD i would expect a very nice, new and large flat with all utilities included. You can find an older 400-500 sq/ft place for about $350 USD. The price is negotiable. In my experience, it’s better to agree to a price in coms than in USD because that way you don’t have to worry about fluctuating exchange rates every month. You can negotiate the prices.
Ask your landlord/landlady for household items. Your landlord/landlady generally provides these items to you without any extra cost. So feel free to ask for extra pots and pans, irons, cutting board etc.
Careful on the number of rooms versus bedrooms. I’ve found that postings will list the number of rooms rather than the number of bedrooms. So a one bedroom apartment may be listed as a two room apartment because the living room counts as a room.
Washing machines are found in the bathrooms but you won’t find drying machines here. And that’s okay because it’s pretty dry here in general. As an example, I have left my jeans out after washing them the night before and by the time I woke up 8 hours later, they were dry. So don’t sweat it (har har see what I did there).
Neighbourhoods. I’ll admit that I don’t know very much about this as I haven’t lived here long enough. But here’s what I’ve heard from friends.
Philharmonia area - a lot of expats live here and rave about it. People love the area. It’s downtown has new and nice apartments.
Downtown area is generally safe. It’s not like the “downtown” the one might expect in a large city. It’s more like “central town” meaning that most famous restaurants and attractions are centrally located here. If you’re working at an NGO, there’s a good chance that it will be somewhere here. But if you’re working for the American University of Central Asia (AUCA), it will be far.
I live by the Vefa area (Vefa is a shopping mall). Also a good area but less centrally located to coffee shops, restaurants, stores or malls. You’d have to walk about 30 to 40 mins to get to downtown. It's south of downtown and on the other side of the train tracks
Cosmopark area - close to Orto-sai Bazaar (market where you can buy clothes, shoes anything), some shops and a movie theatre. This may be a good area if you need to be close to AUCA but want to be around stores, cafes and not too far from downtown.
Happy hunting