Munich Apartments
How to Rent A Flat

Renting a Munich apartment is quite expensive and takes a lot of perseverance (unless you are willing to pay any price). Because cheap and moderately priced apartments are scarce, real estate rental 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. Due to German laws that are very much in favor of tenants, the lessor 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 a Munich apartment, flat or find a roommate. You just need to have some patience.

Find suitable properties to let

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 two biggest property and real estate portals in Germany are ImmobilienScout24 and Immowelt.de.

If you don't find an apartment here, it probably doesn't exist :-)

Get an appointment to view the apartment

Check the offers, get yourself an overview of the rental market in Munich and the prices. Prices will vary according to district and location.

After you contact either the landlord or the real estate agent, you'll be given an appointment to visit the domicile. 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 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 doing it yourself 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 2-3 monthly rents for their services.

Costs that might occur

Whether you contract an estate broker or not, you might have to pay him anyways:-( If the renter has contracted one you'll still have to pay the fee of 2-3 monthly rents.

Furthermore it is very common to ask you for a security deposit of 2-3 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 landlord releases it once you move out and left everything satisfactorily.

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!