Subletting in Philadelphia: A Guide for Students and Interns

Who Sublets in Philadelphia, and When

The three largest campuses are the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, side by side in University City, and Temple University in North Philadelphia. Students leave after spring finals and look for someone to take their room until the lease ends.

Drexel is built around co-op, a paid work term that counts toward the degree. Drexel describes two cycles: fall-winter, from the end of September to the end of March, and spring-summer for the other half of the year. A student on co-op in another city often sublets for one full cycle.

Summer interns come for hospitals, research labs, law firms and the offices in Center City and University City.

Where Students and Interns Live

• Near Penn and Drexel: University City, Powelton Village and Spruce Hill, west of the Schuylkill River around 30th Street Station and Clark Park. SEPTA’s Market-Frankford Line (the L) stops at 30th, 34th and 40th Streets, and the subway-surface trolleys (the T) run under and along Market, Spruce and Baltimore.
• Near Temple: the blocks around the main campus on North Broad Street, on SEPTA’s Broad Street Line (the B) at Cecil B. Moore, with Regional Rail at Temple University station.
• Center City: Rittenhouse Square, Washington Square West, Logan Square and Fairmount, within walking distance of City Hall and the Parkway.
• South Philadelphia and Graduate Hospital, south of South Street, on the Broad Street Line and several bus routes.
• Near the offices: Center City around Market Street and City Hall, and University City around 30th Street Station.

Getting Around Without a Car

Central Philadelphia is flat, compact and laid out on a grid, so walking and biking cover a lot. SEPTA runs the two subway lines, trolleys, buses and Regional Rail. Penn, Drexel and Center City are about one to two miles apart along Market, Chestnut and Walnut Streets, and the Broad Street Line links Temple to City Hall.

The Rules to Check Before You Sublet in Philadelphia

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s consumer guide to tenant and landlord rights lists “whether you can sublease the rental unit” among the things a lease should spell out. So the lease is the place to look, and your landlord’s written consent is what to get. We did not find a state or city rule that lets you sublet against the lease.

Short stays are regulated by the city. Philadelphia says renting a home, or a room in it, for fewer than 30 days at a time requires a Commercial Activity License, a zoning permit and a Limited Lodging Operator License or a rental license with a hotel designation, and that property owners and their agents apply for them. A sublet of 30 days or more is not that kind of rental.

Penn, Drexel and Temple each have an off-campus housing office. If you live in university housing, ask that office about its sublet policy.

How to Sublet Your Place in Philadelphia

1. Read your lease for the sublease clause. The state’s consumer guide says a lease should tell you whether subleasing is allowed.
2. Ask your landlord in writing, and get the approval in writing before you list. An email that names the subtenant and the dates is far better than a phone call.
3. Talk to your roommates. If they are on the lease, the lease may need their written agreement too.
4. Set exact move-in and move-out dates that sit inside your own lease term.
5. Price it near your own rent. As an example of the math, not a local price: if you pay $1,000 a month and leave for 3 months, an empty room costs you $3,000.
6. Put it in writing: names, dates, rent, what is included, how the deposit is handled and the house rules. Both of you sign and keep a copy.

Choose a subtenant on the stay only: dates, ability to pay, references, pets, smoking. Fair housing laws make it illegal to choose or refuse someone because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or family status, and many states and cities add gender identity, sexual orientation, age, lawful source of income and more.

• How to Handle Your Sublet, Start to Finish
• Going Abroad: The Apartment Checklist

How to Find a Sublet in Philadelphia Without Getting Scammed

Sublet Buddy lists sublets of 30 days or longer. Its listings are live in New York City today, and Philadelphia is on the way.

• See the place in person, or on a live video call where the person walks from the street door to the room.
• Ask to see the page of the lease with their name on it, and the landlord’s written approval of the sublet.
• Never pay a deposit or rent before you have a signed agreement. Be wary of anyone who wants a wire transfer, gift cards or crypto.
• Be wary of pressure. “Three other people want it today” is a reason to slow down, not to pay.

• Sublet Scam Warning Signs (Written for New York, but the Warning Signs Are the Same)
• Philadelphia on Sublet Buddy