Apartment Munich
How to Rent A Flat
Renting an apartment Munich is quite expensive and takes a lot of perseverance (unless you are willing to pay any price). Because cheap and moderately priced apartment rentals are scarce, real estate is a typical lessor's market: the landlord can chose from many wannabee tenants the one he likes most.
Off course the "liking" does not so much depend whether you're a nice person or not, but more whether your future renter thinks you will be a good lodger.
In Germany apartments for rent have laws that are very much in favor of tenants, therefore the owner wants to be sure beforehand that you'll treat the flat with care, pay your rent punctually, aren't noisy and don't start to fight with the neighbors.
Nevertheless, it is very doable to rent an apartment
in Munich, or find a roommate. You just need to have some patience.
If you're serious about moving to Munich and need to find your dream apartment in weeks instead of months or even years, you must read my guide
How to Rent an Apartment in Munich.
It will give you all the nitty-gritty details about the competitive rental market in Munich and how to get a headstart over everyone else.
How to find a rental apartment Munich
The best way used to be to buy a newspaper (i.e. the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Fridays), preferably very early in the morning and start calling the real estate agents as soon as you can.
But nowadays, you can conveniently use the internet as well.
The biggest real estate portals for rental flats or apartments for sale in Germany are ImmobilienScout24 and Immowelt.de
They even offer categories for furnished apartements, short term lease and expat rentals.
If you don't find an apartment here, it probably doesn't exist :-)
Visit the apartment
This could be your new place
Check the offers, get yourself an overview of the rental market in Munich and the prices. Prices will vary according to district and location.
As a rule of thumb: the more central your residence is, the more expensive and the northern districts tend to be cheaper than the quarters in the south of Munich.
After you contact either the owner or the real estate agent, you'll be given an appointment to visit the housing (Besichtigung). This can happen one by one (preferably), but unfortunately the more frequent option is to have a group appointment, where up to 50 willing future lesses are hurried through the rooms.
This is your chance to make a great impression!
Documents you need
Be prepared to give plenty of information about yourself!
Usually the rentor asks you for a "Mieterselbstauskunft" (a voluntary self assessment). Main questions are your personal data, ID card,
financial condition, employer, work contract, as well as references.
Without references and an indefinite job contract where you've been working for more than 6 months it is very difficult to convince any landlady to take you as her tenant.
Contract a Real Estate Agent
If searching for an apartement in Munich is not suitable for you (i.e. you don't speak German), always contract a good real estate broker or relocation service, or better yet, have your company contract them for you :-)
Realtors will charge 2 monthly rents for their services.
Costs that might occur
Whether you contract an estate broker or not, you might have to pay her anyways:-( If the renter has contracted one you'll still have to pay the fee of 2 monthly rents.
Furthermore it is very common to ask you for a security deposit of 3 monthly rents. This deposit is technically still your money, but will be put into a special savings account, where you can't access it, until the landlady releases it once you move out and she finds her flat in good conditions.
When renting apartment in Munich, be prepared with a lot of patience, have all your documents handy and show the lessor that you're willing to pay the rent!
Ready to start looking for your flat?
Or do you prefer to take a guaranteed shortcut?
Order my step-by-step guide How to Rent an Apartment in Munich and you will make it to the top of the application pile for your dream apartment in no time at all.
