- Unless otherwise indicated, rental apartments in Germany are generally unfurnished, that means there won’t be any kitchen equipment or furniture. This is not the case for apartments or rooms that are sublet temporarily (“Zwischenmiete”). “Zwischenmiete” means: students who are going abroad for a limited period of time are looking for a tenant for their apartment or room.
- In all cases, you need to establish whether utilities are included in your rent or not (“warm” vs. “kalt”). In addition to “cold”, i.e. basic rent (“Kaltmiete”), you will also have to pay for water, heating, electricity, phone/Internet connection, licence fees, and service charges.
You must always ask which costs are already included in the rent. - Many rental ads use abbreviations and acronyms that even native speakers find incomprehensible. You can find an abbreviation directory for house hunting here.
- Most rental agreements stipulate a three-month termination notice. The tenant can terminate the lease sooner than the specified date only if a new tenant can be found who will take over the lease.
- Bochum neighbours on seven other Ruhr towns. With its prime location in the heart of central Ruhr and an excellent public transport network, it is worth taking a look across the borders of the city: the green town of Witten, for example, is very close to Bochum; the town of Herne is connected to the city via the underground train U35.