Housing
Finding accommodation in Germany. Compare remote-booking platforms with student residences and local listings.
Recommended for booking from abroad
Designed for remote booking before arrival. Verified listings, English support, and secure payments.
Student & co-living residences
Community-focused housing options — good as a landing pad for your first months in Germany.
Public & local listings
Official or traditional housing routes. Best prices, but more effort required.
Why the German rental market is hard to enter
The difficulty is not price, though prices have risen sharply. It is that the market is built around documents a newcomer does not have. A well-priced flat in Berlin or Munich can attract more than a hundred applications, and faced with that a landlord filters on paperwork: a Schufa credit report and three months of German payslips.
If you have just arrived you have neither, which is why so many people find themselves locked out of the ordinary market for their first few months. This is a structural problem rather than a reflection on you, and the practical answer is to accept a more expensive short-term arrangement that gives you an address, then move into the local market once you have a Schufa record and a payslip history.
Understanding what you are actually paying
Listings quote Kaltmiete, the cold rent, which is the base figure. Warmmiete adds Nebenkosten, the shared building costs covering water, heating, refuse and maintenance. Neither figure usually includes your own electricity or internet.
The Nebenkosten figure is an estimate. At the end of each year the actual costs are calculated and you either receive a refund or, more often, a back-payment. A cold winter can produce a Nachzahlung of several hundred euros due immediately, so keep a reserve rather than treating the monthly figure as final.
The deposit, the Kaution, is capped by law at three months of cold rent and must be held in a separate account and returned with interest when you leave. Combined with the first month's rent, budget for roughly four months of rent up front.
One genuine culture shock: unfurnished in Germany frequently means no kitchen at all, sometimes no light fittings. Previous tenants take theirs or sell it to the incoming tenant. A basic fitted kitchen runs €1,500 to €3,000, so buying the existing one from the outgoing tenant is usually the cheaper route.
Protecting yourself
Never transfer money for a flat you have not seen, either in person or through a verified video viewing on a platform that holds funds in escrow. The standard scam is a well-priced flat, a landlord conveniently abroad, and a request to wire a deposit before viewing. It is common enough that any such request should be treated as fraudulent by default.
When you do sign, ask for the Wohnungsgeberbestätigung immediately. Your landlord is legally required to provide this confirmation within two weeks and you cannot complete your Anmeldung without it. Landlords are not always prompt, and the delay cascades into your tax ID, your bank account and your residence permit.
Photograph everything before you unpack, and complete the handover protocol properly. Deposit disputes at the end of a tenancy are common, and timestamped evidence from day one is the most effective protection you have.
Important considerations
Public and traditional housing routes offer the best prices but come with significant friction for newcomers:
- WG-Gesucht and local listings usually require in-person viewings
- Student dormitories have waiting lists of 6–12 months — apply immediately
- Never transfer money before seeing a place (in person or via verified video call)
- A confirmed address is required for your Anmeldung and visa