Find­ing an appartement

• In region­al news­pa­pers, e.g. the Badis­che Neueste Nachricht­en (BNN) (Wednes­day and Sat­ur­day edi­tion), Badis­che Woche,
• or in the Inter­net (for exam­ple, www.immonet.de, www.immowelt.de, https://www.wohnungsboerse.net/, https://www.meinestadt.de, https://www.immobilo.de/, https://www.immobilienscout24.de/ and oth­er portals).
• If you would like to live with oth­er peo­ple, you can also look for a Wohnge­mein­schaft (WG) (a shared house/apartment). You can find a list of WGs online at: https://www.wg-gesucht.de/, www.wg-suche.de, or Face­book groups, e.g. WG Zim­mer frei in Karlsruhe.

You can find here a list of res­i­den­tial devel­op­ment com­pa­nies and hous­ing coop­er­a­tives

The largest res­i­den­tial devel­op­ment com­pa­ny in Karl­sruhe is VOLKSWOHNUNG GmbH of the City of Karl­sruhe: https://www.volkswohnung.com/startseite

Tip: As in many large Ger­man cities, find­ing an apart­ment in Karl­sruhe is not always easy. Ask friends, rel­a­tives, neigh­bours and col­leagues whether they know of any avail­able apartments!

Here are some use­ful abbre­vi­a­tions you will often find in apart­ment advertisements:

• AB Alt­bau (Old building)
• B Bad (Bath­room)
• BLK Balkon (Bal­cony)
• HT Hausti­er (Pet)
• KM Kalt­mi­ete (Basic rent)
• Kt. Kau­tion (Deposit)
• mbl. möbliert (Fur­nished)
• mtl. monatlich (Month­ly)
• NB Neubau (New building)
• NK Nebenkosten (Util­i­ty charges)
• NR Nich­trauch­er (Non-smok­er)
• P/PP Park­platz (Park­ing space)
• Whg. Woh­nung (Apart­ment)
• WM War­m­mi­ete (Rent incl. util­i­ty charges)
• Zi. Zim­mer (Rooms)
• ZKB Zim­mer Küche Bad (Room + kitchen + bathroom)
• ZKD Zim­mer Küche Dusche (Room + kitchen + shower)

Tip: What should I take with me when I go to view the prop­er­ty? A copy of your iden­ti­ty card and, if you have one, con­fir­ma­tion that you have a job (e.g. a pay slip or a copy of your employ­ment contract).

What is a deposit? Most land­lords will ask you for a deposit before you move into the rent­ed apart­ment. This is usu­al­ly 2 or 3 months’ Kalt­mi­ete (KM – basic rent), i.e. rent not includ­ing util­i­ty charges. You will get this mon­ey back when you move out – unless some­thing in the apart­ment needs to be repaired.

Tip: Don’t for­get to write your name on your mail­box and door­bell – it’s eas­i­ly over­looked in the stress of mov­ing to a new apartment.