Complete Guide to build a initial home in Germany

Yes we were traveling to Germany and there were only two days left to prepare. It is difficult when you do not know the date of arrival in another country well before and you can fly anytime. There can be challenges in the journey. No doubt you can still research and talk to people for information. And somehow we discovered that it can be hard to find an apartment on such a short notice. But if you have sufficient time before ,you can plan a lot of things before. So here is a complete guide to build a initial home in Germany.

2.Apartment Hunt

Facebook Groups

We knew well before before arriving in Germany that finding an apartment can be difficult for us. So we basically joined Facebook groups to have some info but luckily found some groups where actual apartments are listed. Below are the groups that turn out helpful:-

• Flats in Berlin
• Berlin Housing,Rooms,Apartments,Sublets
• Berlin Apartments-Rent-Share & Sell flats & apartments in Berlin
• Indians in Berlin
• Berlin Apartments & Rooms for Rent

We checked the posts in these groups almost all the time. And we got 2 good leads from them for which we got visiting invites. Yes here landlords invite you for a apartment visit at a particular time. Let me share my experiences with these two. The first one , a 2 Zimmer apartment(or 2BHK) was rented around 650 Euro. But the reality is bit different. Living room is considered a room itself so 2 Zimmer means a living room and a bedroom not two bedrooms. Also the kitchen was not separate but the gas stove was installed in the living room only. And there was a a sink of-course although the shelf was too small to cook anything.I have attached the picture below.This was another disappointment.

There was another lead for which we went on the visiting scheduled time but the landlord informed us that they have already sold it to someone else. I was like we are here after discussing the timing of visiting and he is doing this. On the other hand there were these things on google like be on time as otherwise you can create a bad impression for the person as people really consider these things while renting their property. And where are the ethics now. This was another disappointment.

Then comes the second good lead from the market place as well. It was a 1 -Zimmer having the bedroom in the same living space with an open kitchen and bathroom ,perfect for initial period as the agreement was only for 3 months. But the rent was around 1100 Euro for a single big room. The place was good when we checked.I am attaching the picture here.

We were confused between this lead and the one where we are currently living .It was a short -term contract as we can rent a less rented one quickly. The disadvantage of this one was that we need to find a home in Germany again within 3 months.

Rental Websites

Create your profiles on https://www.immobilienscout24.de , https://www.immowelt.de. Search on these websites for any new post. We got two invites from these also. The home where we are currently staying was found through these websites only. Actually this was the first house we checked for around 1200 Euro .There were two rooms, one living and one bedroom good in area .Then there was separate kitchen and some area near the door. So it was a good deal except the agreement was for one year.But we had no other choice except buying it. All the above 3 leads were providing City Registration(Anmeldung) which is necessary for some other essential things.

Temporary stays

Checkout these websites if you are looking for a home in Germany with no agreement and on monthly basis:-

https://www.apartmentservice.de/en/apartments/
https://www.staycity.com/
https://www.thehomelike.com/search/DE/Berlin

These provide shared apartments on monthly basis, but when we checked them these were all booked in advance. We need to leave our hotel as soon as possible. So it was not an option for us. You can check them before coming and they are very good.

From these ,we landed to another website named @urbanroomie where there are private rooms with shared kitchen and living room.They were available the same day for a month for about 900€ .We were thinking of going there in case we could not book any apartment for longer.

These all helped believe me .Also these temporary stays come without Anmeldung or the city registration

Write a personal note whenever applying for home

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When ever you are applying for an apartment on any of the options defined above. Create a little introduction about yourself ,your profession ,country ,hobbies ,requirements .Send the same notes to every option defined above.It helps in increasing your chances. We were able to book an apartment within a week and people call us lucky here😜. But they are not aware of the effort done.

3.Basic Home Stuff in Germany

The home we rented is not fully furnished but comes with the basic amenities. It has a washing machine, induction stove, fridge ,a vacuum cleaner ,a bed frame, a TV and some utensils .Electricity was already there but not the internet.So here I am providing details here from where we bought the other basic home stuff in Germany.

IKEA(Sleeping Stuff)

So first of all we made the sleeping arrangement by bringing the mattress ,a blanket and some pillows. We checked our neighborhood and found a shop but the mattress there was expensive. We were looking for a foam one.So we decided to check out the IKEA store.It is affordable here and not a luxury in Europe. And we found all the three things ,mattress (Matr Schaum), Warm blanket(Smasporre), Pillows(Kiss nie),Blanket and pillow cover set(Kvastfibbla) for around 277 Euros.

WoolsWorth

Then it was time for some other stuff like a basic pan for cooking ,a basket for dirty clothes, rug, microfiber towels for cleaning, slippers, socks, organizing baskets, belt, scented candle, diary.So all these stuff we found at WoolsWorth at reasonable prices. There was also a lot of decoration stuff. It is like not very good quality store but for things where you do not want to spend a lot of money it is the best.It costs us around 80 Euros.

Real Supermarket

We were still searching for a store where you can find everything like Walmart in USA. Real supermarket is a perfect place for building a initial home in Germany .Our main focus was cooking utensils as we had purchased some things from WoolsWorth also.We bought some spoons, a wide steel pan for veggies, a small one for tea, glass bowls, dustbin, toilet brush, grocery bag, ladles and oven gloves. You can find anything you can imagine available here.The bill was around 250 Euros again.But all the stuff mentioned above is just bought once. We brought our paraat(for kneading dough),chakla( bread roller),steel plates with bowls and glasses , a 3 liter cooker from India only.

Saturn(Electronics Stuff)

We bought a mini chopper(Kitchen) of brand Ok ,a Philips trimmer for around 50 Euros from Saturn.It is quite popular here.Electronics is a costly affair. We were thinking of buying the iron from here also but it was costly and the Philips one was available at a lower cost from Amazon. This store was just like Best Buy in USA. Here you can find good phone and internet deals also.

Furniture

So I have already mentioned that we were provided some basic things in our home already. We bought some used furniture like a desk along with the chair, two wooden boxes ,a kitchen cabinet, wooden shoe stand for around 80 Euros from Facebook Marketplace. The desk is of superior quality, a vintage item. Vintage furniture here is better in quality than the ones in Ikea.The transport costs us around 65 Euros which was arranged by the seller from the Facebook Marketplace only ass we do not know a lot of people here. We are still not done with the furniture yet. So a part of this article is coming soon.

To be continued…(Also all these information is related to Berlin state and there can be some changes in other locations)

Also checkout:-

https://www.theexplorerdiary.com/a-guide-on-grocery-shopping-in-usa-for-indian-buyers/(opens in a new tab)