Moving to Stuttgart

Sajan

Hey everyone.
I'm moving to Stuttgart, Germany in a little over a month. I was wondering about accommadation and am having a little trouble to find a good site on the net. Any ideas or advice would be really helpful.
Thanks.
Sajan

dsab

First... why Stuttgart ? In my opinion one of the worst bigger cities in Germany.

Then about the German Rental Market.... a few differences to the Irish one...

German Rent is divided into Net Rent and additional Costs (which you pay every month to the landlord). These additional costs don't cover electricity, Water etc. They are extra on your own. These additional costs are Insurances, Taxes. Litter Tax, Oil for the heating (rarely electric heating in Germany) often Cable TV, Costs for communal Areas, Garden Costs etc, which normally every tenant in the house has to pay. They vary from area to area, I would say around 20 % of the "NAKED" rent.

You pay normally every month a sum x in advance, and at the end of the year the landlord or the managment company has to issue a final statement, And if you are lucky you get money back, or if the payed money is not enough, you have to pay some more. The amount you pay in advance gets normally adjusted to the current situation after the statement (If you overpaid the advance will be lowered etc.=

You pay at the start normally 2-3 months deposit of the "NAKED RENT". The landlord has to put the money into a savings account, and can't use it for his own good. If you move out, he has to pay you back the deposit INCL. INTRESTS. And of course the rent in advance.

If you pay via an agency... THE TENANT PAYS THE COMMISION...normally 1 months rent.

Normally Leases in Germany are permanent...not 1 year as here (but they are available as well). There are strict legal rules about Notice. Do you live less then 5 years in a house or Apartment, then the notice for lanlord and Tenant is 3 months. If more then five years... it gets 6 months...and then up to 12 months. The landlord CAN NOT just decide on less. A contracts which agrees on less Notice in favour of the Landlord are legally not binding for the tenant, even if he signed it.

Any more questions ? Just ask. I am a qualified german estate agent...

dsab

One important thing I forgot....

In 99.95 % of all Cases Apartments in Germany come without ANY Furniture, often even without a kitchen.

Accomodation Sharing is not very common in Germany, except for Students.

Rent is quite cheap, compared to Ireland....

Sajan

Thanks very much for that information. Should come in Handy.

We're having difficulty though trying to find listings of appartments to let on the Web. Do you know of any good web-sites that I could check out or newspapers. I'd really like to get some Idea of what the market is like and what's available.

Seeing as you're an estate agent I'd appreciate if you could maybe pass on some contacts to me that you may have.

I'm heading over to stuttgart to work so I'd be looking for about 6 to 12 months accomodation. I'm chossing Stuttgart for personal reasons.

Oh yeah, and what makes you think Stuttgart isn't a great place.

Thanks again,

Sajan + Supercrew.

Eurorunner

All of what dsab has said sajan. The germans dont tend to move around too much and it will become quite obvious soon as to why!

First off, in cities such as Stuttgart, its usually difficult to get an apartment. Be very careful of the contract side of things. The only way to avoid a contract would be to share an apartment with others (wohnung-gemeinschaft). Otherwise, there will be a contract - things to watch - deposit; notice required on leaving; minimum length of contract; other costs ie. water (and waste water is also charged for ), lecky, heating, etc.

There will be no furniture.

The germans usually talk in terms of square meterage when letting apartments - get an idea of what size of gaff you want. Apartments are advertised to let as 'warm' or 'cold' ie. inclus. of heating costs or heating as extra..
A balkony will make it much more expensive.

Again, in a place like stuttgart, most of the properties are let thru agents (immobilien...sp?) - you may not have a choice but to go through one of these - they're supposed to work for you and find you a place but in germany, due to the shortage of apartments, you take what they have to offer and they charge for this - they're evil(except for dsab )- and they are even more likely to screw you when leaving if you dont have everything covered.
Upon leaving, you will be expected to paint the whole gaff regardless of whether you feel it is necessary.

If you are going over with a company, get them to pay for the immobillien.


I suggest you try and find temp. accomodation first - till you get your feet - i'm speaking from personal experience - be careful - its worth the effort in investigating it fully before signing a contract on somewhere thats too expensive or whatever.

As soon as you get to Stutgart, drop down to one of the irish pubs (i dont know why im bothering to tell you this cos you will anyway) and get the inside line on the local apartment situation, etc from the local headz.


Good Luck.

dsab

I personally think that Stuttgart and Frankfurt don`t have much to offer compared to Berlin, Hamburg, Munich or Cologne. Even Dresden is much nicer. But I don`t wanna scare you off....maybe you like it.

Have a look at

www.immobilienscout24.de
www.planethome.de

I searched in Stuttgart, and for example a 3 Room Apartment goes for around 600 - 800 Euro.

Just as a note.

Apartments in Germany are described by Rooms (for example 2 Zimmer Apartment).
2 Zimmer Apartment means: 1 Livingroom & 1 Bedroom. In addition of course standard 1 Kitchen, 1 Hall and 1 Bathroom. Kitchen is almost always a separte Room. Open Plan is not very appreciated in Germany. If you need storage space, most apartments in Germany come with a private Cellar.

If you see in the decription EBK, that means that a kitchen is already fully fitted.

Price:

Kaltmiete is the naked rent. Nebenkosten are the advance payments on additional costs which you pay every month in advance. Warmmiete means Rent and Nebenkosten together.

Let me know, if you have any questions,

Kambika

Try www.kurzfuendig.de

ocsor

Sorry to revive this old thread, but im goin over next month to Stuttgart for 7 months minumum and am lookin for accom now. Anyone have anymore advice, im on a college internship for the year and am not sure what to do?

mikedragon32

Closing this, it's a zombie thread that shouldn't be in this forum.

Oscor, please post your query in the Living Abroad forum: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=213