Housing and Accommodation

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Students

Finding a place to live is in most German cities is usually not a walk in the park. However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. In big cities like Munich, rent for as little as 15m² could start at about 450 euros but the rates tends to be much cheaper in smaller cities.

Be very careful when you search for apartments online because the number of scammers is alarming and you might easily lose your money if you are not careful. Websites like Craigslist are notorious for scammers.

As a general rule, if the deal looks to good to be true, it probably is.

Before you proceed with your house search, we advise that you read this guide on avoiding housing scams.

Where to look

The Student Council housing

The most ideal place for any student would be to get the apartment from the Student Council in the city. The city usually has some hostels set aside for students in the university and a student body is charged with issuing them out to students. In Munich, the Studentenwerk München is responsible for this.

Unfortunately, there’s a long waiting list for these houses and waiting times are usually a couple of months and even lasting years long in the worst case.

Housing provided by private societies/organizations

Usually churches or organizations have societies that provide housing to students of their denomination or who are affiliated with them. Most of these residences may come with lots of restrictions nonetheless so be sure you are comfortable with the requirements before moving in. The hostels are usually mostly shared-amenity houses. So you may have to share a kitchen, bathroom or perhaps a toilet with a few other students in the house.

You can view some of them here.

Listings on the web

We insist that you be very careful when dealing with online housing offers because it is very easy to be scammed if you are not careful. Here are just some of the pages that might be useful for you:

Offers from other students

Often, a student is going abroad for an exchange program or just for leisure. To capitalize on their vacancy, they often rent out their hostels for short periods of time. This can be a good solution for you in the short-run while you get settled and try to find something more permanent.

You can check out some students groups on social media:

See this link here.