We were recently confronted with DOOM – a letter from our landlord stating that he was cancelling our lease so that his in-laws can move in. Germany has spectacular renter protections, but as we would soon find out, this situation, called “Eigenbedarf”, is the one exception to those stoneclad rules. So we found ourselves suddenly, unwillingly, on the market for a new apartment.
For those of you who know Munich, you know that the rental market is insane – and we didn’t even realize how crazy the prices had gotten in the nearly five years we had been living in our last apartment. We would be paying 500 Euros more for our apartment a month, easily. So we started to look, and quickly figured out that apartments were either affordable (there were very few of those) but nearly impossible to get (we started to suspect that it would come down to bribing someone) or expensive and nice, and indeed available, but yeah, expensive.
If you start an apartment hunt in Munich, you won’t get around Immobilienscout. The app was forever dinging on my phone, we had a full schedule of visits and our heart felt shattered by rejection. In the end, we found a place, and we are so excited – it has its own yard, and it’s beautiful. We did learn a bit in the process, so here are my humble tips for surviving and finding a place you will be happy with:
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Throw yourself into the hunt
We found the best strategy to be to immerse ourselves fully in the hunt. We had apartment viewings scheduled nearly daily, and it was exhausting – but for us it was the right strategy. We were able to put all our energy into finding a place in a short amount of time.
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Don’t be afraid to negotiate
I would never have thought this in a crowded real estate market like Munich, but time and time again, when we asked if various things were possible (do we REALLY have to take the parking spot? Can you install a kitchen free of charge? Will you lower the rent by 200 Euros? (seriously)) We got yes after yes. Seriously, all of those questions were answered by yes. So ASK! Often, the agents really do want to rent the property quickly, so if you have requests, they are willing to grant them!
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Broaden your search
The place we ended up signing for was listed as a tiny two bedroom – initially we were only looking at 4 + room places upwards of 90 square meters – but I went ahead and broadened my search to include smaller places. As it turned out, the place we found was listed as a 3 room but being renovated to be a 4 room – but if I hadn’t broadened my search we would have missed it! So do look a but further afield, you may get lucky.
What tips do you have for braving the apartment search?
american wolpertinger 