NorgeStart
Find housing & jobs
Moving to Norway or just arrived? NorgeStart explains Norwegian bureaucracy, work, taxes, housing, healthcare and daily life in plain language — with an AI assistant that translates official letters and audits payslips.
Updated: 2026-07-06
Where to find a place to live
- finn.no — THE marketplace for everything in Norway; "Eiendom → Bolig til leie" for rentals. Set up saved searches with alerts; good flats go in days.
- hybel.no — rooms and smaller rentals, popular with students and newcomers.
- Facebook groups ("Leie bolig Oslo" etc.) — real finds but also most of the scams; apply the deposit rules strictly.
- Student? Apply for student housing via your samskipnad (e.g. SiO in Oslo) the minute you're admitted — queues are long and it's the cheapest option (~NOK 4–7k/month).
- Rough rents: Oslo room 7–10k, 1-bed flat 13–18k; Bergen/Trondheim ~15–20% less; small towns much less.
Where to find a job
- finn.no/job — the main job board. arbeidsplassen.nav.no — NAV's official board, free to use.
- LinkedIn matters in professional sectors; many jobs are filled via networks — tell everyone you're looking.
- Staffing agencies hire a lot of newcomers: Adecco, Manpower, Randstad, Jobzone — a normal first foothold in warehouses, construction, hotels, healthcare.
- Seasonal work: picking/farm jobs (spring–autumn), ski resorts (winter), fish industry (all year, coastal).
CV & applying, the Norwegian way
- CV: max 2 pages, factual, with photo optional; no grade lists. Cover letter (søknad): short, concrete, why THIS company.
- Norwegian beats everything: even basic Norwegian on your CV massively widens the market. English is fine in IT/engineering/academia.
- Get foreign qualifications recognised (free) at HK-dir — required for regulated professions (nurse, electrician, teacher, driver…).
- References are checked — line them up in advance.
Everything else you'll search for
- Used furniture/things: finn.no → Torget (lots of free items under "Gis bort"), Facebook Marketplace, Fretex & UFF second-hand shops, IKEA (Slependen/Furuset etc.).
- Cars: finn.no → Bil (check EU-kontroll status and heftelser/debt on the car via Statens vegvesen).
- Doctors/dentists: helsenorge.no (GP), legelisten.no (reviews), private walk-ins (see Healthcare guide).
- Events & people: meetup.com, Facebook events, internations.org, local frivilligsentral (volunteer centre) — the fastest ways to build a network.