Student housing in Belo Horizonte: where to live as an international student

The main types of student housing

Belo Horizonte offers the same housing formats as most large Brazilian cities. Each one suits a different budget and lifestyle.

A república is the traditional Brazilian student house-share. A group of students rents a large house or flat together, often with its own identity, shared chores, and a busy social calendar. It is the cheapest option, and it gives you an instant social network and daily practice in Portuguese. The trade-off is privacy. The atmosphere can be loud and party-oriented, which rarely fits the workload of a postgraduate course such as a two-year MSc.

A kitnet or studio is a small self-contained furnished flat with its own kitchen and bathroom. It offers the most privacy and quiet, and it costs the most per square metre.

A room in a shared flat (a quarto in a flatshare) is the middle ground most students settle on. It costs less than a studio and is calmer than a república.

Private student residences and coliving are run by specialist operators. They bundle rent, bills, and services into a single monthly fee, and they drop the traditional guarantor requirement. The format is designed for students and is growing in Brazil. Supply in Belo Horizonte is still limited, so check what is actually available before you count on it.

A homestay with a host family is worth considering for your first few weeks. It eases the language barrier and gives you a settled base on arrival. University halls exist but are limited and reserved for specific groups, so they are not a realistic route for most incoming students.

The best neighbourhoods, and where the campus is

SKEMA's Belo Horizonte campus is located in Savassi, in the affluent south-central zone, at Avenida do Contorno 5456. Proximity matters for both convenience and safety, so the most practical areas cluster around it. For each one, weigh the profile, the rent, and the commute.

• Savassi is the city's cultural and tech hub. It hosts the San Pedro Valley startup scene and is full of cafes, bars and bookshops. You can walk to campus in under fifteen minutes and skip public transport entirely. It is safe by day and calls for normal urban caution at night. It is also the most expensive area: furnished studios average around R$4,500 a month.
• Funcionários sits directly next to Savassi. It is more residential, slightly cheaper, and still within walking distance of campus.
• Lourdes and Santo Agostinho are upmarket, quiet, and secure. Santo Agostinho ranks among the city's most expensive districts.
• Centro, the downtown area, is the cheapest and most central choice, with many repúblicas. It requires more caution after dark.
• Pampulha is green and built around its lagoon. It is pleasant but further out, so you would depend on buses.
• Buritis is family-friendly and affordable, but more on the periphery.

What it really costs: rent and the extra charges

The advertised rent, the aluguel, is almost never the final figure in Brazil. Two recurring charges are passed to the tenant, by law or by contract, and they catch newcomers out.

The condomínio is the building maintenance fee. It covers communal areas and, importantly, the 24-hour doormen and security staff. In modern blocks with a gym or a pool, it can be high. Budget R$700 to R$1,800 a month.

IPTU is the municipal property tax. In much of Europe, the landlord absorbs it. In Brazil, the tenant usually pays it, often as a monthly instalment of R$200 to R$700. Water, electricity and internet come on top.

Based on market data from 2024 to 2026, three monthly budgets give a realistic picture, all charges included:

• A furnished studio in Savassi: around R$5,400, roughly £810.
• A room in a comfortable flatshare in Funcionários: around R$2,500, roughly £375.
• A room in a good república in Centro: around R$1,500, roughly £225.

Housing aside, the baseline cost of living runs to about R$3,127 a month. A student living independently in Savassi should therefore plan for roughly R$8,500 a month, around £1,275. Rents in Belo Horizonte rose sharply over the past year, so treat these figures as rough guides rather than fixed prices. Converted from sterling or euros, the city remains affordable. But once you add the condomínio and IPTU, central flats are not as cheap as the headline rent suggests. Before you fix a housing budget, check what financial support for international students you qualify for.

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The Brazilian rental contract: what trips up international tenants

This is the part of the process that worries most international students. It is also the part with the most workarounds, so it is worth understanding before you start viewing flats.

Renting in Brazil is governed by the Lei do Inquilinato, the Tenancy Law (Law 8.245/1991). A standard residential lease runs for 30 months. The sticking point for a foreigner is the guarantee.

A fiador is a guarantor who must live in the city and own property there. A student who has just landed cannot provide one, and this is where most international tenants get stuck. The law allows alternatives, though the landlord has to agree to accept them:

• Caução, a cash security deposit capped at three months' rent. It makes sense to foreigners, but many traditional landlords see it as too little cover for damage or a long eviction.
• Seguro-fiança, rent guarantee insurance. You pay an insurer an annual premium, usually one to one and a half months' rent, and the insurer acts as your guarantor. Like car insurance, it protects the landlord and is never paid back to you.
• Título de capitalização, a capitalisation bond worth six to twelve months' rent. The money is locked with a third party and refunded with minimal interest at the end of the tenancy if you owe nothing. It protects your capital, but it ties up a large sum upfront, often more than R$20,000 for a premium flat.

How to rent step by step, and when to start

The order of operations matters, and some of it has to begin months before you fly.

1. Get your CPF before you leave. The CPF is the individual taxpayer number. Without it, you cannot sign a lease, open a bank account or even buy a SIM card. You do not have to wait until you arrive. The Receita Federal, the Brazilian tax authority, lets non-residents apply from abroad through an online form and by emailing their documents. Processing takes anywhere from two working days to three months, so start early.
2. Book temporary accommodation for your arrival. A monthly Airbnb covers all bills and needs no paperwork or guarantor. That buys you time to search in person before you commit to a lease.
3. Open a local bank account once your CPF is active.
4. Use the right platforms. QuintoAndar has reshaped the market with its fiança garantida, a guaranteed-rent scheme that replaces the fiador with a fixed fee. The fee runs at around 8% of the total monthly package, so a foreigner can rent without a guarantor. ZAP Imóveis and VivaReal list the broader market, and Facebook groups are where repúblicas advertise their free rooms.

Getting around and staying safe

Belo Horizonte is built on steep hills. That makes daily cycling impractical, except along the dedicated paths around the Pampulha lagoon. The city of 2.5 million relies on buses. The MOVE bus rapid transit system runs in dedicated lanes to speed up cross-city journeys, and ordinary municipal buses serve everywhere else. They are cheap, but they can be crowded and slowed by traffic. This is the practical case for living in Savassi or Funcionários: you walk to campus and skip the commute altogether. Wherever you settle, apply standard urban caution and take extra care in Centro at night.