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EXPLAINED: How to get a Kleingarten in Germany

An estimated 5 million people in Germany make use of a garden allotment; here's what you need to do to become one of them.

Published: 13 April 2022 16:47 CEST
Updated: 27 April 2022 12:24 CEST

A garden gnome with sunglasses sits among flowers in an allotment garden in Mainz. Photo: picture alliance / dpa | Fredrik Von Erichsen

In Germany, a Kleingarten or Schrebergarten is a small plot of land, similar to an allotment, which city-dwellers can rent to use as their own garden, to grow flowers, vegetables or just to enjoy the sun.

These little gardens are extremely popular; there are over 900.000 throughout the country, and the Federal Association of German Garden Friends estimate around five million people use such a garden.

Why is the Kleingarten so popular in Germany?

The fondness for allotments in Germany goes back to the mid-19th century.

The cramped living conditions and poverty in the inner cities quickly led to a steep decline in physical and psychological well-being for much of the population.

To alleviate this hardship, some local communities started offering the poorest families small patches of land near the city to grow their own vegetables, and others started providing green spaces to local communities for children to play in.

The latter type of garden was given the name Schrebergarten after the physician Daniel Gottlieb Schreber, who made the revolutionary demand for playgrounds for children in the mid 19th century in order to get them off the dangerous streets. However, these eventually became used more often for their parents to grow fresh produce.

How can you get a Kleingarten?

The first thing to note is that, in order to get an allotment garden, you first have to join a communally organized garden association.

After joining a garden association and being allocated a plot, you lease the piece of land rather than renting it, which means that you are given the piece of land for an indefinite period of time with the possibility to grow fruit and vegetables there.

Trees bloom in the plots of the allotment garden association "Gartenidyll" in Saxony-Anhalt.

Trees bloom in the plots of the allotment garden association “Gartenidyll” in Saxony-Anhalt. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert

How can I find an available Kleingarten?

One way is to search online for the regional or district association responsible for your neighbourhood and get advice from them about free gardens in your area. Links to all of the state-wide regional garden associations can be found on the website of the German Allotment Garden federation (BDG).

Sites like eBay Kleinanzeigen and the website of your local garden associations can also be a good place to check.

Another option is to go directly to your local allotment garden association and ask on site, or to simply ask acquaintances and people in your neighbourhood.

How quickly can I get a Kleingarten?

Depending on where you live, you might have a long wait before you get your hands on your very own patch of green. Demand for allotments has risen sharply in recent years, especially in major cities. But don’t let that dishearten you.

One useful tip is to put your name down on the lists of all of the eligible garden associations in your area to increase your chances of getting a spot.

How much does a Kleingarten cost?

According to a study by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development, the average rent of an allotment garden in Germany is 18 cents per square meter per year.

The plot area of an allotment garden usually ranges between 250 and 400 square meters, so for a 400 square meter allotment garden you can expect to pay an average annual rent of €72.

But the cost varies widely depending on where you live. In big cities with high demand, you will pay significantly more for your garden than in a small town. In Berlin, for example, you can currently expect to pay a rent of around 35 cents per square meter.

Rent is only one part of the total cost – there are also the association fees, insurance, waste collection and water costs to factor in too. But, as a rule, the ancillary costs are significantly higher in larger cities than in more rural areas.

All in all, including the lease, you should budget for annual fixed costs of between €250 to €500.

Flowers hang in a garden in the association "Kleingärtnerverein Oberursel" in Hesse.

Flowers hang in a garden in the association “Kleingärtnerverein Oberursel” in Hesse. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Andreas Arnold

What else should I be aware of?

Joining a garden association means that you must abide by certain rules and communal expectations.

Many allotment garden associations have fixed rules about keeping animals, so you should find out in advance whether you are allowed to keep chickens or rabbits or if you are allowed to bring your domestic pets to the garden.

The association rules may also specify what you can plant in your garden. For example, they may state that one-third of the total area is for growing fruits and vegetables, another third is for lawns and flower beds, and the final third is for structural use.

You should also not forget that joining an association means joining a community and that helpfulness, tolerance, and a relatively sociable nature are essential if you want to have your own patch of green space in the city.

Useful Vocabulary

To lease = pachten

Plot of land = (die) Parzelle

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10 essential tips for avoiding rental scams in Germany

When it comes to settling in Germany, one of the most stressful and difficult tasks you’re likely to face is finding a place to live.

With the country in the grip of an ever-worsening housing shortage, there aren’t enough rental properties to meet the high demand – especially in big cities like Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt – and the flats that are available can often stretch even the most healthy of budgets.

With renters desperate to find affordable homes, crafty scammers have seized the chance to place fake ads on the market, often in dream locations with lower-than-average rents.

While some of these scams may be easy to spot, others can be highly sophisticated, with fraudsters setting up professional-looking websites and even allowing hopeful tenants to view their properties in person.

Recently The Local reported on a Polish couple who lost around €7,000 through a rental scam in Berlin. The scammers had sublet a beautiful Altbau apartment in the popular district of Neukölln and created an advert for it via a fake letting agent website, then arranged for people to use a key box to view the property while the real tenants were away.

Despite checking the contract over with legal experts from their local tenants’ association, nobody saw anything out of the ordinary – that is, until they tried to access the apartment and found a family already living there.

So, how do you protect your hard-earned savings and steer clear of scammers while looking for a new home?

Here are 10 important ways to protect yourself from rental scams.

1. Be alert to suspicious signs

The key to avoiding scammers in Germany is to be fully clued up on the warning signs. Was the listing for the property uploaded in the middle of the night, is the advert thin on details or written in bad German or English, and does the offer feel too good to be true?

Though it would be nice to believe there are still cheap flats to be found, finding an attractive property at an overly reasonable price is usually a red flag.

Hamburg

Modern apartments in Hamburg. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Daniel Bockwoldt

If someone claiming to be a landlord contacts you out of the blue, that’s also your cue to run a mile. With so many people looking for housing, most letting agents and landlords will have more than people looking to rent their properties without needing to get in touch with people themselves. Anyone who does is more than likely to be a scammer.

2. Rule out landlords who say they live abroad

One of the major warning signs to look out for is a landlord who claims to be renting the property from abroad, or who says they are out of the country for other reasons, like a last-minute business trip.

That’s usually a scammer’s way of excusing the fact that they won’t be able to meet you personally or even show you the property before you rent it.

“When the country the landlord lives in appears then I would say there’s a really big chance this is a scam,” said Kuba Rudzinski, one of the victims of the Berlin-Neukölln rental fraud.

Even if the excuse seems plausible, your best bet is to ignore anyone who tries to sell you a story about living abroad and simply move on with your house hunt.

3. Do your research online

Before committing to anything, take time to do some thorough research to scope out the property, landlord and letting agent.

Running the pictures and text used in apartment listings through a search engine like Google will help you quickly identify stock photos and text stolen from other listings. For pictures, this is known as a reverse image search.

A laptop

Photo by 2H Media on Unsplash

It’s also worth checking that any websites you’re sent to are fully functional and not copies of other letting agent sites, and that any email addresses match the website domain.

4. Visit the property and ask around

Never agree to rent a property without seeing it in person first. Arrange a viewing and take the opportunity to ask questions about the property and the neighbourhood.

Kuba also recommends speaking with the neighbours in the building to check if the property is genuinely being rented.

“Go to the place before and ask the neighbours, is this flat really for rent? Because these people generally know,” he said. “You’ll need to convince yourself to do it of course, but just ask in the building, ask on the floor where the flat is.”

5. Don’t transfer the full deposit in advance

Advance payments for anything, whether it’s furniture, a deposit or getting a chance to view the property, should be considered a major red flag.

Under German law, you are usually only expected to pay the deposit by the start of the agreed rental contract – and certainly not several months in advance.

Euro notes lie next to some house keys on a table.

Euro notes lie next to some house keys on a table. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Andrea Warnecke

You are also legally entitled to pay your three months’ deposit in three instalments on top of your first three months’ rent after moving in, so definitely be cautious of landlords that place pressure on you to transfer a large lump sum.

If you’re really concerned, look into alternatives for paying your deposit, such as Kautionversicherung (deposit insurance) or a Mietkautionssparbuch, where you open a bank account and pledge the amount to the landlord, rather than transferring the money directly.

6. Insist on meeting the landlord or letting agent in person

If a landlord or letting agent refuses to meet you in person or insists on conducting all communication online, they’re probably not who they say they are.

Insist on meeting face-to-face to verify their identity and ensure they have a legitimate connection to the property.

7. Avoid sending documents straight away

Not all rental scams are about getting money from you directly: many scammers are simply after your personal details for the purposes of identity theft.

Be wary of providing personal documents or sensitive information before you’ve verified the legitimacy of the rental agreement, especially when it comes to things like passport scans or other forms of ID.

8. Seek legal advice from experts

If you’re unsure about any aspect of the rental agreement or if something seems suspicious, seek advice from legal experts or tenants’ associations.

However, be aware that this isn’t always a cast-iron guarantee that a tenancy is legitmate. Over the past few years, fraudsters have become increasingly sophisticated, even down to producing water-tight rental contracts for would-be tenants.

An estate agent hands over keys to an apartment. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Christin Klose

According to civil lawyer Emilia Tintelnot, becoming a member of a tenants’ association can be a good way to get affordable legal advice, and it can also be helpful to set up legal insurance to ensure you can access help when you need it without having to pay lawyers’ fees up front.

9. Be wary of stereotypes

Avoid making assumptions based on stereotypes or preconceived notions about someone’s gender or nationality, as this may cause you to overlook things you might otherwise see as warning signs.

In Kuba’s case, the fact that the fraudsters were German made them appear more legitimate in his eyes, as Polish people tend to see Germans as law-abiding and trustworthy.

Be aware that scammers can come from any cultural background and may use a variety of tactics to deceive unsuspecting renters.

10. Keep an extensive paper trail

Document all communication, agreements, and transactions related to the rental process, including phone numbers and any bank details provided.

According to the Berlin police, this type of evidence can be crucial for an investigation if you do suspect a scammer.

While evidence can differ across cases, “pictures, contact details used by the perpetrators, original documents, bank details with payment receipts” are particularly helpful for investigators, and could help the police stop the scammers for good.

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