How to Find an Apartment in Germany

When one is looking for a room to rent in Spain, normal is to see an add, to call to make an appointment, to go to see it and, if you like it, to say “I'll keep it”. In general, if you are the first one to say that you wanna keep it, you do, no matter who else is already living there. At the beginning there is no problem. In most of the cities there are more people expecting to rent their rooms than people looking for one. It never took me more than a week to find a place to live and if you are looking for a shared apartment it's always going to be furnished. (For those who are looking at the moment: http://www.fotocasa.es, http://www.idealista.com, among others)

I also have to say that this is the system I have normally found in other countries where I have lived. In Ireland, for example. One time I lost the chance to keep a room that I had loved on the internet because I got lost and was late for the meeting. Another girl saw the room before me and she kept it, a matter of hours.

For me this battle of “first come, first served” was the normal; until I arrived in Germany. The first time I went to Germany was in my Erasmus and I stayed in a student accommodation that my university arranged, so there was no problem. Now then, when I came to LIVE IN GERMANY, concretely in a shared apartment, it got pretty difficult, but not impossible.

My great idea of taking my bags and staying in a hostel for a few days until I find a place to live wasn't as good as I though. Looking for a room there is quite a ritual. After 5 days in the hostel and a week in a friend's house in a different city, I decided to stay for a while in an apartment which offers the school where I was about to do my German course. It was a little bit more expensive than a regular apartment in the city, but if you have that option is a good starting point. Staying in a hostel too long can be really expensive.

The apartment was good, but I could only stay while taking classes in the school and my course was only for 2 months. Mi idea was to work, to have a regular life there like everybody else and to live with German people (obviously we were all from abroad in the apartment of the school). So I started my search.

AT LEAST A MONTH! And that if you are lucky, I daresay. Not only because it's going to take a while to find something but also because they usually start to look for somebody quite early. Even if you are accepted, you will probably have to wait before get in the house. If you don't mind where to live in the city is going to be a bit easier, maybe you could find something on a couple weeks. But if you expect to live in a determined place or “hot spots”, so to speak, you will need more time. It took me 2 weeks to find a house and 2 weeks more to get in. I have to say that I was really lucky basing on the stories that other people told me.

CAREFUL: rooms in Germany are normally not furnished. Students there are used to carry their furniture from one city to the other. If you don't want to spend a lot of money, you can always buy second hand furniture in webs like this one: http://kleinanzeigen.ebay.de.

Contrary to what usually happens in other countries like Spain, where the landlord is the one who decide who is staying on a room, in Germany the decision making process belongs to the own tenants. It's not “first come, first served”, every candidate has to have a little “interview” and, later, tenants choose the one they want.

It means that maybe like you there are 12 people or more interested on the same room and they went to see it. So you have to be chosen among those 12 people. Depending on the compatibility you had with the people who already live there or what are they looking on a roommate (student, quiet, clean, etc) they will choose you or not. In my opinion is a great system to guarantee a future better cohabitation. Well then, it's a pain in the ass for the one who is looking for a room, because you can be really lucky and be chosen quickly or it can take forever. It's difficult for everybody, both foreigners and Germans.

Not always looking for a room is going to be like that, but it's the system that you will probably find.

A good alternative is to look for a place to stay for a short period. There are people who rent their rooms just for a few months, while they are not there, and in this cases the room will probably be furnished. You can find rooms available for just 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, etc. It's easier to get a room for a short period because not so many people are interested and this is a good solution to have a place to live while looking for another with enough time.

All you need to start looking is this website:http://www.wg-gesucht.de. Here you will find a little bit of everything in every city and organized on zones. First step is to contact, then... GOOD LUCK!

Although, no matter what happens, I can't help wondering: why is in Germany a city calls “eat”? We are going to eat, where?, when?, what?

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