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RENTING

Everything you should know about renting a furnished flat in Germany

Furnished properties are increasingly popular in Germany - but it's worth knowing the rules around them to make sure you don't get overcharged. Here's everything you need to know before signing the contract on a furnished flat.

Furnished flat in Leipzig
A luxury furnished flat in Leipzig, Saxony. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/HUF HAUS GmbH & Co. KG | Lothar Rehermann

For someone moving to a new country or city, it seems like a dream scenario: you find a new place, pick up the key, and simply move in and unpack. Everything you need, from your bed to your coffee table, is already there waiting for you. 

You can dispense with the endless trawls through IKEA showrooms and trips across town to pick up second-hand furniture on Ebay Kleinanzeigen – not to mention the stress of endless decisions on colour schemes and measurements. 

It’s exactly this that makes furnished flats such a popular choice with foreigners. While they may not be a long-term option, the ease and flexibility of being able to move-in straight away makes them a great short- or medium-term option while you’re finding your feet in a city.

So, what’s the catch? 

A search for furnished flats on any rental property portal will reveal all. 

For around 30 square metres in Hamburg – the size of a large hotel room – it’s not unusual to see prices of around €2,700 or more per month, which amounts to a pretty hefty €90 per square metre. In Berlin, €3,000 per month may well be the price you pay for a tiny studio in a central location: €100 per square metre.

In the banking hub of Frankfurt, things are marginally more affordable. Here, a 30-square-metre furnished flat will set you back around €1,500. But that’s still a pretty steep €50 per square metre. 

Listings like these can give the impression that landlords are allowed to charge whatever they please for a furnished property. Thankfully, that’s not true – though the rules can get a little bit murky, especially when it comes to short-term lets.

READ ALSO: Six confusing things about renting a flat in Germany

Here’s a few other things you need to know. 

What is a furnished flat?

If a flat is rented as a furnished flat, it should have at least the bare essentials that are required to live in it. Generally, that would mean a bed, wardrobe, table, chairs and sofa, etc. 

However, you can occasionally find furnished flats that are “löffelfertig” (spoon-ready), which as the name suggests means they have everything you need, right down to cutlery and crockery. 

Why are furnished flats more expensive?

Generally speaking, landlords are entitled to compensation for the furniture they buy for the property, which can push the monthly rent up by as much as a few hundred euros per month. 

Since they don’t have to be clear about these costs and how different parts of the rent are calculated, some landlords may inflate the base rent as well, meaning that tenants may end up paying way over the odds. 

It’s also worth knowing that if properties are specifically defined as either holiday or short-term lets, landlords are exempt from many of the usual rent controls. 

Furnished holiday flat Germany

A modern furnished flat in Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/Bades Huk | BRITA SOENNICHSEN

If the furnished flat is considered to be a holiday let, then the tenant is often required to pay tourist tax for each night they stay there. In this case, the flat also doesn’t have to be furnished to a particularly high standard as it is only intended to be lived in for a very short time. You may find this type of flat absurdly pricey compared to normal rentals in the city, and if money is a concern it’s best to steer clear of holiday lets for longer-term stays. 

If you work in the city and are staying somewhere for more than two months, the landlord may decide to class the property as a temporary let. In this case, the landlord is exempted from clauses like the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake), which are designed to slow down the rate of rent increases, and you should have a clear duration or move-out date specified in your contract.  

It’s important to note that the landlord will usually have to give a good reason for restricting the time period of the rental. This could be the fact that they or their family want to use it themselves or are planning renovations at a later date. 

READ ALSO: Altbau vs Neubau: What’s the difference and which should I rent in Germany?

How much more can my landlord charge?

As mentioned above, holiday and temporary flats can often be rented out for eye-watering prices – but there are strict rules on categorising a rental flat as temporary or holiday accommodation.

For an ordinary furnished rental, the rent should usually be roughly based on standard prices for similar properties in the same area (a system known as the Mietspiegel), with any premium features or fixtures adding slightly more to the monthly rent. As mentioned above, the landlord can also charge a surplus for the furnishings they include in the flat.

The broad rule of thumb here is that this should be linked to the value of the furniture and its depreciation in value of the course of time. Though landlords aren’t forced to be transparent about the system they use, the two most commonly used ones are the Hamburg and the Berlin model. 

Furnished flat

A cosy bedroom in a furnished flat. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/VDM | Rauch

With the Berlin model, the landlord is allowed to charge two percent of the total value of the furniture each month.

The furniture is assumed to have a lifespan of 10 years, so if the furniture is new when the tenant moves in, they can charge two percent of the purchase price of the furniture each month. If all the furniture in a flat cost the landlord €5,000, that would amount to €100 extra in rent each month. The value of the furniture goes down by ten percent per year, so after five years the landlord would charge €50 per month on top of rent, and after ten there would be no surcharge.

The Hamburg model assumes that furniture goes down in value over the course of seven years, after which time it’s worth just 30 percent of its purchase price. The amount that the tenant pays towards the cost of the furnishings each year is based on these calculations.

READ ALSO: 

Can I take furniture out of a furnished flat?

Yes! If you’re someone who likes to put your own stamp on a place, then you’re fully entitled to replace some of the furniture with your own.

But – and this is a big ‘but’ – you’ll be responsible for storing the furniture safely until you move out, and putting everything back in its previous place.

In other words, we don’t recommend chucking the coffee table out on the street with a ‘Zu verschenken’ label before moving in your own piece. We guarantee your landlord will not be amused once they find out. 

To clarify what’s meant to be in the flat when you move in (and when you move out), tenancy law experts recommend having a full inventory in the contract. That should help you avoid any nasty disputes in the future.

What if the furniture is damaged, missing or defective? 

If furniture is damaged, missing or unusable, you’re entitled to have it repaired or replaced and can also ask for a rent reduction.

Once again, it’s useful to have a full inventory of what should be in the flat to help you with these negotiations.

Do tenants in furnished flats have the same rights as other tenants?

Generally, yes. Having furnishings inside a property doesn’t change the legal status of the contract.

That means that your landlord can’t, for example, suddenly ask you to move out at short notice and without any cause. As mentioned, they also need to have a specific reason for limiting the duration of your contract – otherwise the move-out date isn’t valid. 

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For members

HOUSING

Is there any hope for Berlin’s strained rental market?

Rents in Germany’s capital city have more than doubled in the last decade, according to a recent report from Investment Bank Berlin. What keeps pushing up prices, and is the trend set to continue?

Is there any hope for Berlin’s strained rental market?

According to Investment Bank Berlin’s 2023 housing market report, published earlier this month, found rent prices, excluding utilities, rose from €5.75 per square metre in 2014 to €13.99 per square metre in 2023. 

The average asking rent prices leapt to €19.85 per square metre for newly built flats. 

READ ALSO: ‘Tense housing situation’: Why a Berlin renter can’t be evicted for two years

Tale of ‘two housing markets’

Dr. Hinrich Holm, chairman of the Board of Investment Bank Berlin (IBB), said in the report the current state of Berlin’s housing market reveals a challenging situation for renters. 

“Berlin basically has two housing markets,” he said.  “One with moderate prices for existing rental agreements and one with high rents on offer. We must therefore expand the range and at the same time offer apartments subject to rent and occupancy in order to provide low-income population groups with social housing.”

The sharp rise in Berlin’s population after war-related refugee migration and the end of the pandemic isolation rules is partially to blame, he added. Nearly 80,000 people moved to Berlin after the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine in February 2022. 

Construction unlikely to solve Berlin apartment shortage

Construction for new builds is back in swing and has reached the levels seen in the mid-1990s after the wall fell. 

For the first time building completions exceeded the number of building permits issued. That amounted to the completion of 17,310 apartments which is 1,400 more than in 2021.  

Christian Gaebler, Senator for Urban Development, Building and Housing, said new construction could not immediately solve Berlin’s apartment shortage. 

Luxury flats in Berlin

Central Berlin apartments. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christophe Gateau

“Housing construction is not meeting demand at the moment,” he said. “The causes are complex: rising land and construction costs, delivery bottlenecks, a shortage of skilled workers and also the development of interest rates.”

With a construction backlog of more than 62,000 apartments and a realisation rate of 86.5 percent, it is predicted that the majority of apartments will become available over the next few years. But that will not help those in the market for an apartment today. 

READ ALSO: Why does Germany keep missing its house building targets?

Berlin housing crunch increases competition

Molly Harison, an American English teacher in Berlin, found her current apartment through the website wg-gesucht. She said it was tough to find reasonably priced apartments within The Ring — what Berliners dub the part of the city encircled by the S-Bahn — and avoid potentially predatory renting situations during her search. 

“With all of the expats and foreigners that are moving here, rent is really high, unless you find a questionable living situation or an honest person,” Harison told The Local. “The amount of people I know who are renting out rooms in their apartment, and the person in the apartment is paying the majority of the rent is wild.”

Harison said competition was fierce to find her current living situation.  

“There’s just not a lot of long-term rental contracts because as soon as they’re up someone snatches them and they’re gone,” Harison said. 

“There were days where I’d try to go on and find things it would be like as soon as I had messaged three people, those same ads from those three people would be gone because someone else had already put the deposit down.”

Lucy, an Italian digital marketer who moved to Berlin in March to start a new job, agreed. 

“I definitely needed to be consistent with my search, I checked the posts twice a day and sent a lot of messages,” she told The Local. “It helped me to be one of the first people to send a message to the landlord, like as soon as they posted the offer.” 

Lucy said this method paired with some knowledge of German helped her find a place within her budget in just under three weeks. 

Still, it can also be a struggle to find long term housing that offers Anmeldung, or official registration at a German residence, which is a requirement for long term visas and work permits.  

“It was quite hard to find a place that was legit for the Anmeldung, I’ve noticed that most of the time it’s not possible,” Lucy said. 

Anmeldung is required to open some bank accounts, get a tax identification number for work, and sign up for wifi in Germany. Legally residents are required to register their address within two weeks of moving.  

And housing issues in Berlin have spread outside of the city’s metro area. Nearby cities like Potsdam also recorded marked rises in asking rent prices as some commuters choose to move outside of Berlin’s city limits for housing.  

But while rents in Berlin have soared to record highs, housing prices for those looking to buy are not as bleak. The prices of condominiums and one and two family homes bucked the trend and declined slightly from previous years. 

Condominium prices stagnated for the first time since the survey began analysing Berlin housing data. 

In 2023, condominiums were advertised for an average of €5,746 per square metre. The median for new condominium buildings fell by 4.4 percent to just over €8,000 per square metre. 

The median home price also fell 9.5 percent to €639,000. 

READ ALSO: Why property prices are falling in almost all German cities

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