Due to rising demand and low supplies, the cost of renting a flat in some German cities has risen dramatically in recent years. 

For that reason, many people decide to enter into a flatshare – known as a Wohngemeinschaft or WG in Germany. Lots of students, trainees on apprenticeships and people who are not staying in Germany for a long time may also decide to go down the WG route. 

In view of the difficult housing market in Germany right now, however, renting a room can still be pricey depending on where it is. 

Housing market analyst Empirica carried out research on the cost of renting a room ahead of the university summer semester in Germany which began in April. 

Using several thousand rental advertisements for shared flats, they looked at warm rents (the base rent as well as additional costs) for an unfurnished room between 10 and 30 square metres. 

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

The group found that shared flats were 22 percent more expensive in 2022 than in the 2017 summer semester.

“In the university locations as a whole, the standard price for the current semester is €421 and thus 22 percent higher than in the summer semester 2017 – or €19 higher than in the summer semester 2021,” said the market analyst.

Where do rooms cost the most – and the least?

The standard price for an unfurnished room in a shared flat is highest in Munich – at €650 per month. It’s perhaps unsurprising since the Bavarian capital is known as one of the most expensive places to rent a home in Germany – and even Europe. A recent ranking on the cost of living by ECA placed the German cities of Munich (16th) and Frankfurt (19th) in the top 20 most expensive cities in Europe. 

Munich is followed by Hamburg, Frankfurt and Berlin where a WG room will set you back about €500 per month, according to the study. And in Cologne, renters there face paying around €490 per month in rent to live in a shared flat. 

READ ALSO: Revealed – how much it costs to rent a room in a German university town 

The most affordable offers for a WG room are currently in Magdeburg (Saxony-Anhalt) where it costs €259 per month to stay in a flatshare and Halle where it’s €260 per month.

The graph by Statista below shows the most expensive and most affordable cities this year, according to the study. 

Source: Statista

Other more affordable cities are Erfurt in Thuringia (€300 per month), Paderborn in North Rhine-Westphalia (€305) and Leipzig in Saxony (€320).

Vocabulary

Cheap/affordable – günstig

More affordable price – günstigerer Preis 

More expensive – teurer 

Unfurnished – unmöbliert 

Housing market – (der) Wohnungsmarkt 

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