Accommodation in Germany

Searching for a house

Looking for a house in Germany can be a bit tricky, so you might want to start early. You can get a single apartment / WG ("Wohngemeinschaft") / shared flat depending on your preference. Consequently, other factors such as room rent etc. will also depend on the type of house you want.

Germany Renting system: Important details

Key words: Apartment, Wohnung, Wohngemeinschaft

The advertisements normally lists the size of the apartment (Wohnfläche) in square meters is and might also provide details like the number of rooms, furnished or unfurnished, the number of bedrooms (Schlafzimmer), living room (Wohnzimmer), floor (Diele), bathroom (Badezimmer), Balcony (Balkon) and utilities included (heating, water, electricity, trash removal and cleaning if any) etc.

Types of rental facilities:

Apartment blocks (Wohnblock) :- You might be looking at a multi storey buildings with several apartments every floor built for residential purpose are common sight in big cities. Student dorms are also generally in this fashion.
Mehrfamilienhaus :- Apartments with 3 to 5 floors with 1 or 2 apartments every floor. Might be slightly expensive than others depending on the locality.
Einfamilienhaus :- One gets a complete building for themselves for people need more personal space, these are normally expensive and also needs more effort to maintain them unless you are used to or have someone to maintain it for you.
WG - Wohngemeinschaft :- (Flat sharing) is a very common in Germany among if you are looking for a cheaper place rather than having living on your own (studio). Flat sharing means in most cases one has a personal bed room and rest of the areas like Kitchen, living room and toilets are shared with other flat mates.

Renting :-

What is included?

If you are unfamiliar with the German administrative system, then the house rent has two components which needs to be paid either together or separately, they are

Principal house rent (Kaltmiete) and
Utilities / additional costs (Nebenkosten): It may include maintenance charges, trash clearance, water & heating etc. Depending on the heating type and agreements in place, either you pay it to the owner or the city.
Normally Electricity is not included in the Nebenkosten otherwise agreed by both parties. Electricity has to be paid directly to the city, Stadtwerke or any other private firms. Make sure you know the complete details before signing the contract.

Safety deposit (Kaution):

Normally a deposit of 1 to 3 months Kaltmiete is asked which has to be ideally transferred after signing the contract to a joint account of the Tenant and Owner which is not followed by many but asked to transfer to the private account or separate account for rent payments, just make sure all these details are mentioned in the contract.
Some people do ask for cash payments which is rather uncommon but make sure you have a written proof that the caution is paid. I always prefer to do the Bank transfer to be on safer side.

House Contract /Rental agreement (Mietvertrag) :

Signing a contract is customary in Germany and it is not possible to register with the municipal office (Rathaus / Burgeramt) without having a rental agreement. Owner and tenant will get a copy of the rental agreement and make sure both the copies are identical before signing it.

In addition these days some cities (Example: Düsseldorf) ask for a special letter from the Landlord confirming the registering people live in this apartment which is called as Wohnungsgeberbestätigung even though one has a Mietvertrag.
Contracts can be limited or time bound (1 or 2 years) depending on agreement before hand. Make sure the notice period for leaving the apartment is included in the agreement in both the cases.
Preexisting Damages or any issues with the apartment are to be included in the contract. Make sure you have enough evidence of them by taking pictures and / or videos with permission of the owner.

Furnished / Unfurnished:

Renting apartments unfurnished is a common thing in Germany unless explicitly mentioned. Even without any basic stuff like curtains, lamp holders and kitchen.

Some flats do come with a fitted kitchen (Einbauküche / EBK) if you are lucky and they normally mention it in the advertisement.

Agent Commission (Maklergebühr) :-

According to the rule from early 2015, which states that the party ordering the service from house agencies (makler) pays for the service. The commission for agents will be based on the rent and will be 2.38 times months cold rent ( Kaltmiete) including 19% VAT.
If you want to avoid paying the fee look for apartments by yourself by investing some time and find what you like. If not find an agent who can do the job for you.

Tips:

If you are looking for an apartment / house make sure you understand the rental conditions and what is being offered before signing a contract. You might be looking at a multi storey apartments,
Pets: If you are a pet lover and have one currently or would like to have one in future, please clear it up with the landlord / agency beforehand to avoid any surprises later.
AVOID TRANSFERING MONEY BEFORE SEEING THE APARTMENT, there are several scammers who claim that they are not in town and would ask you to transfer money and AIRBNB will handover the keys to you. A lot of expats are scammed so far, so please be aware.
Take the help of a German speaking friend to read /translate the house contract properly before signing it.

Typically, you can start looking on line for a house, there are many websites such as:

Finding a private place for long term stay in Germany.

Alternative Links:

wochenspiegelonline.de

ebay-kleinanzeigen

Shpock

Local news paper adevertisements are still popular with aged people for example: wochenspiegel or other news papers.

Students:

Contact the student association at your University to get student dorms

Short term accommodation /hostels:

www.hostels.com
Airbnb (avoid scammers, use only payment system by Airbnb)
https://www.hostelworld.com/
http://www.jugendherberge.de/
more coming soon

Byuing furniture:

Ikea is good option if you are looking for affordable furniture, they also deliver the furniture to your home including assembling service (Montage) for extra money. There are also several other furniture stores in every city which offer a great vareity of stuff and decent prices.
Its common in Germany/ Europe to buy used stuff as long as they are good and don't hesitate to buy them. You can use ebay-kleinanzeigen or shpock to buy such used stuff.

Facebook groups:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/flatsberlin/?hc_location=ufi

Disclaimer: I am sharing my experience to help others and I take no responsibility of whatsoever for the information or expiring links or wrong information etc. However I do update the page occasionally, if you have any feedback, query or more information please leave a comment I will try to attend that. This is my personal blog and written out of passion and I make no money with it.
Please feel free to share the blog with your friends.

Life in Germany

Search This Blog