Accomodation in Germany (Munich)

Bounty Hunter

Moving to Germany in a few weeks for work (should be there for a year) and now searching for accomodation. I've already organised a temporary place to stay for the first week or so while I view apartments but was wondering if anyone could reccomend where to look online in advance?

donadoni

You have a difficult task ahead of you. Good luck!

Hope this helps a bit.

http://www.toytowngermany.com/wiki/Apartments_in_Munich

My advice is, look for an apartment in the outskirts or the edge of the city. The chances for finding something for a reasonable price are much higher and with the excellent public transport in Munich it makes hardly any difference. You're in the city center and back in no time.

Again, the best of luck to you, it's not easy.

Bounty Hunter

cheers man (ps Donadoni was a legend) been reading toytown a lot, quality site though as you say tis a tough task finding reasonably priced stuff in Munich and most of the sites recommended on TT seems to fit that kinda expensive mold with regards housing.

donadoni

I know. I am from near Passau in Bavaria (about 180 km away from Munich) and been living in Munich for 15 years. Even for me as a native German (Bavarian) speaker with good connections in Munich, it was nearly impossible to find a reasonably priced apartment on the free market.
I was lucky enough to work for the Bavarian government and later for the City of Munich who provide flats for their employees for a good price.
May I ask if you're going to work for a specific company there? If it's something bigger (like Siemens, BMW etc.) I know that they also provide apartments for their employees. Even if it's a smaller one it would be worth asking. They know about this problem and that, if they want to employ people from elsewhere, they have to help housing them.

Seeing that you're a football man I would recommend that you get in contact and maybe join the Munich Irish Rovers FC.

Some of the guys there have been living in Munich for 20 years and more and may have some connections to help you find something. They are a good and helpful crowd (at least they were when I was with them 12 years ago) and I know they have helped some of the Irish lads coming to Munich to find a job and a place to live, in the past.

Here are some more sites. They are all in German though. Hope it still helps

http://www.1a-immobilienmarkt.de/muenchen/wohnungen/mieten/?gclid=CIO_m4vlwLgCFcw72wod6GAAgA

http://www.meinestadt.de/muenchen/immobilien/wohnungen

http://www.immobilienscout24.de/wohnen/bayern,muenchen/mietwohnungen.html

http://kleinanzeigen.ebay.de/anzeigen/s-wohnung-mieten/muenchen/c203l6411

http://www.nestoria.de/wohnung/mieten/muenchen

http://www.wohnungsboerse.net/

Bounty Hunter

cheers man really appreciate it, think ive looked at some of those sites but will now have a few more to go through plus ill def link into The Munich Irish Rovers from what youve said.

Unfortunately it's not a big company i'd be working for and although I do expect advice from them on this matter in an email soon I do know they can't really offer assistance with relocation although having lived in Ireland, England, Taiwan & China in the past few years im no stranger to making such moves at this stage.

gotta love boards though, Irish site and yet I am able to get advice from a native German lad who worked for the city of Munich

donadoni

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

cheers man really appreciate it, think ive looked at some of those sites but will now have a few more to go through plus ill def link into The Munich Irish Rovers from what youve said.

Unfortunately it's not a big company i'd be working for and although I do expect advice from them on this matter in an email soon I do know they can't really offer assistance with relocation although having lived in Ireland, England, Taiwan & China in the past few years im no stranger to making such moves at this stage.

gotta love boards though, Irish site and yet I am able to get advice from a native German lad who worked for the city of Munich

LOL That's because I got married to an Irish girl (something to do with Munich Irish Rovers too) and live in Ireland now . Boards is great indeed.The best forum I've ever come across in the net.

munchkin_utd

munich is a balls for accomodation as its a nice city to live in with plentiful jobs BUT they cant build enough accomodation as theres just not enough land in the city itsself, and the neighbouring districts are self governing so feel that the accomodation problem in Munich is not theirs to fix (but they are more than happy to share in the prosperity of the city and other bonuses like its public transport system that they contribute little enough into)

That said, it is cheaper than Dublin to Rent (but on the other hand in Ireland taxes are very low so you can afford higher rents!)

if you need something more medium term till you get a proper place then something like Mr Lodge are dear enough but do offer fully furnished places, which is good seeing as everything else normally will come unfurnished with not even light fittings, maybe even lacking a kitchen.

Soldie

Are you looking for a room or an apartment?

I'd steer well clear of rental agencies and popular property search engines. The rental agencies generally tend to be a complete rip-off, and many of the apartments listed on immobilienscout24, immowelt etc. tend to be posted by estate agencies looking for 2.38 times the kaltmiete (basic rent) just for their key handover 'service'. It can suddenly make a seemingly cheap apartment quite expensive; assuming an apartment with a basic rent of €500, you'd be forking over €1,500 as a deposit, €1,190 as an agency commission and one month's warmmiete (basic rent plus some utilities and community fees) straight off the bat - so upwards of €3,000 just to get the keys to a completely unfurnished apartment. The agency commission is money you don't get back, so if you're only staying for a year it's simply not worth the expense. I've had good experiences with the likes of wg-gesucht.de, which is mainly for rooms but also has short, medium and long-term furnished and unfurnished apartments posted directly by landlords. Decent apartments posted there get snapped up quickly so be on the ball. Ebay kleinanzeigen is worth a look, too. I'd also recommend checking out the Käseblatt (local newspaper) in various different districts that you're keen on living in; they often have properties that aren't listed elsewhere.

As an aside, I find many of the posters on toytowngermany to be quite negative and spiteful.

jester77

Soldie wrote: »

Are you looking for a room or an apartment?

I'd steer well clear of rental agencies and popular property search engines. The rental agencies generally tend to be a complete rip-off, and many of the apartments listed on immobilienscout24, immowelt etc. tend to be posted by estate agencies looking for 2.38 times the kaltmiete (basic rent) just for their key handover 'service'. It can suddenly make a seemingly cheap apartment quite expensive; assuming an apartment with a basic rent of €500, you'd be forking over €1,500 as a deposit, €1,190 as an agency commission and one month's warmmiete (basic rent plus some utilities and community fees) straight off the bat - so upwards of €3,000 just to get the keys to a completely unfurnished apartment. The agency commission is money you don't get back, so if you're only staying for a year it's simply not worth the expense. I've had good experiences with the likes of wg-gesucht.de, which is mainly for rooms but also has short, medium and long-term furnished and unfurnished apartments posted directly by landlords. Decent apartments posted there get snapped up quickly so be on the ball. Ebay kleinanzeigen is worth a look, too. I'd also recommend checking out the Käseblatt (local newspaper) in various different districts that you're keen on living in; they often have properties that aren't listed elsewhere.

As an aside, I find many of the posters on toytowngermany to be quite negative and spiteful.

Spot on, plus you will not find anything in Munich for 500, you would be looking at 750 just for something small. First thing I would do is try and extend that 1 week temporary accommodation. You'll need a lot more time than that to sort somewhere out.

You should contact the HR department of the company you are going to work for and have them post something on their intranet about you looking for an apartment. The best way of finding something is through word of mouth. Be very detailed as well, how many square meters, kitchen/no kitchen, balcony, parking spot, altbau, what your kalt budget is, areas you would consider, etc. I see lots of apartments up on our intranet from colleagues and friends of colleagues. Plus you won't get ripped off by estate agents.

munchkin_utd

jester77 wrote: »

Spot on, plus you will not find anything in Munich for 500, you would be looking at 750 just for something small. First thing I would do is try and extend that 1 week temporary accommodation. You'll need a lot more time than that to sort somewhere out.

You should contact the HR department of the company you are going to work for and have them post something on their intranet about you looking for an apartment. The best way of finding something is through word of mouth. Be very detailed as well, how many square meters, kitchen/no kitchen, balcony, parking spot, altbau, what your kalt budget is, areas you would consider, etc. I see lots of apartments up on our intranet from colleagues and friends of colleagues. Plus you won't get ripped off by estate agents.

yup, intranet can work very well.
We got ours of my wifes intranet and one of her previous places was also found there (along with random furniture and whatnot)

toytown is good for picking up furniture second hand which might be needed down the line, as many expats just sell off their stuff cheap rather than pay for shipping it overseas.