Vicenza Housing Rental Website
Posted: 07/05/2011 Filed under: Army Base Vicenza, Italy, Getting Settled, Helpful Websites, Housing, The Basics | Tags: AHRN, Vicenza Military Housing 9 Comments »
Photo by Billy Frank Alexander
When I moved here, there was no website.
If you were looking for housing, you called housing for an appointment. Later, you went to housing to look at their files. Then they scheduled a time for you to see the house.
Then you met with the translator who took you to houses, no more than two at a time. You had a day to think about it.
Once the day was up, you accepted or declined the property.
No more.
Now there is Automated Housing Referral Network (AHRN).
Simply register and you will be able to see photos of many rental units without leaving the comfort of home, even if “home” now is the Ederle Inn.
This website will take some of the legwork out of finding a house. I wish it had been here when I was looking for housing.
Hope your house hunting goes well!
Peg,
Thank you so much for all the information in this blog! It has helped me tremendously and prepares me for what I expect in a few weeks. My husband is an O3. Do we get to stay on base? If not; What are the good neighborhoods? The bad? How do we schedule an appointment to see the houses on the AHRN website and is there a charge for the realtor or whomever shows us the house?
Thank you!
Ana
Hello Ana! You are welcome! I know how it felt to try and prepare for a move with little information. I will answer your questions as best I can. The housing on post in Villagio is on a space available basis. As I understand, the USAG housing policy memo says if housing is available on Villagio anyone enlisted or up to O4 must accept it. That being said, there has been a huge influx of families from Bamburg, Germany. I have heard the rumor that those in charge are trying to place the junior enlisted on post first. If you don’t get on Villagio, your next choice may be government-leased housing. The government has many apartment or townhouse complexes around the different nearby communities. If you move into government leased, you will be in a building with other Americans and you won’t pay rent or utilities. This is a nice in-between option. You will get to live out in an Italian community, but there will be military families all around you. The last option is private housing, which I suspect you will end up getting. These are the homes on the AHRN website. Once you arrive, you will go to housing and fill the paperwork out. You are provided with an interpreter for 3 housing visits. (Not three houses, but three visits of up to three houses each time.) You don’t pay for this service. After you have been given these options, the military does not have to keep paying for your hotel or provide more sessions with an interpreter. You can hire a realtor, but you need to go through housing to get it approved and you have to pay the realtor. Typically it costs you the amount of one months rent, so it can be expensive. (Our small three bedroom house rents for around 1300 euro a month, so that gives you an idea of what a months rent is.) The neighborhoods really depend on personal choice. Soon the bulk of the soldier’s work activities will move west to the Dal Din Base rather than being on main post Caserma Ederle. This means that housing on the west side of Vicenza, such as Creazzo or Costabissara are closer. I live on the east side of Vicenza in Camisano, it is a very American-friendly town. The negative is it will be about 20 minutes further for my husband to drive when Dal Din opens this summer. Some people love downtown Vicenza, which I would love if I did not have kids to think about. If you don’t have a spouse sponsor (separate from your husband) you can get one by emailing sponsorshipvicenza@gmail.com. A spouse sponsor can often answer a lot of the questions you have that your husband probably won’t think to ask!
Good luck in your move!
We are hoping to get picked up at Caserma for a PCS next year. I was trying to look on AHRN but I do not have a .mil address… is there any other way to go about looking at properties? how easily is it to get “post housing”? we have 3 children in range from 12-1 so will need at least a 3 bedroom possibly 4…
As I understand, if post housing is available, you will be offered and required to take it. I think it depends on timing whether or not you get housing on villagio. As far as I know, there is no other way to look at available properties, short of being here. This website did not exist when I PCS’d here, so I did not even have that option. Perhaps you can get your spouse to sign up for the AHRN website then just use that login. Three bedrooms are pretty common here. Four bedrooms less so, that being said, many homes have odd rooms that are not really bedrooms, but you can easily convert them into one. Here is a video of the Villagio Housing area: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYwzEapljyM
If your husband has a .mil address, he can sponsor you to get one.
I have started our housing search on AHRN. Can you recommend any towns to live in? I know we will “scope things out” when we get there, but it’s always nice to have recommendations
We have 3 small children, would love some green space, while staying relatively close to post but not in an apartment…Thanks!!
Hi Heather! I think every town has positives. I am not a city person, so we wanted a place outside of Vicenza. That being said, several people I know have a three-bedroom home in Vicenza that has a nice fenced in yard and is nearby the activities. I think that Torri Del Quartesolo and Quinto Vincentino are two towns that are near post and have good housing options. If I were to choose again, I’d probably choose one of those two towns. We live in Camisano, which has many American families, but it is around a half hour drive depending on traffic. I love some of the areas out west of Vicenza, because they are so close to the mountains and are beautiful, but they are not at all close to post. Once Dal Molin (the air base that is currently under construction) opens, the west side will be more convenient for soldiers. As I understand, the main post services will stay on Caserma Ederle, though. Hope that helps some! Peggy
You still can only visit/reserve two at a time. We did manage to see a couple without a taxi interpreter and, in most cases, we were able to drive to the houses ourselves and look things over, even if an interpreter wasn’t available.
At least you are able to skip the step of looking at the initial information in the office now. I was in Kansas when we “we” were looking for a house, so my husband went to the office, looked at initial pictures and information. Called me to see which ones I wanted him to look at, then went and looked at them. He took his own pictures, sent them to me via email and then I said yes or no. It was an interesting way to pick a house, to say the least! : )