What you need to know if you plan to move to Germany in 11 Steps: Step 3 The Apartment

Recently I've been looking for a new apartment. I've been living alone for 3 years and I thought I should try to live with someone again, and share the evenings, the meals, the costs and the dirt! My friend Eva was also thinking about moving so we started the search together.

I had forgotten the peculiarities of the apartment search in Bremen... You may be surprised when you visit apartments on the 4th floor without elevator, and when you see there's no kitchen at all. In some cases you may be lucky and have the possibility of paying 2000€ for the already installed kitchen, paid by the last tenant (because he found the aparment with no kitchen!). You have to be very careful because the monthly price of the apartment can increase with every little thing. This diagram has helped us to find a nice one, but you can improve it with all your requirements; for example, you can add a "washing machine installation" block, and decide if you are are ready to go to a laundry 1 km away or not...

* the commission for the agent is 2,38% of the rent without utilities, cold rent or Kaltmiete (in German)

We have also prepared a very simple xls-tool to calculate the equivalent rent and have an overview of the real costs of the apartment. You can use it, improve it and have a look to an example! Click here to download it.

These are our favourite links to start the search:

1. www.immobilienscout24.de: all kinds of apartments, where you have to pay for the "Makler" (commission)  at the beginning
2. www.wggesucht.de: for the ones they want to share an apartment. You will have to be in Germany to get a room, because your future flatmates will want to interview you personally!
3. www.bremen.de (in case you are in Bremen): apartments with no "Makler" fee, so be fast, because there will be lots of people willing to move in

Good luck!!