Finding a house to rent, instead of an apartment

Hi there

I will be moving to Hamburg in Oct with wife and 2 kids for 2 years. I would like to rent a house with garden as opposed to a flat. I will be working here :
Ludwig-Erhard-Str. 18, 20459 Hamburg, Germany - 040 24430-0‎

Don't mind a fair commute if necessary. I have done a search on the forum and couldn't find anything specific, so apologies if this has been asked before. I would prefer a quieter area, budget is up to 2000 EUR/ month not sure how far this goes in Hamburg. Are there websites that would list such properties and which areas would be best for me?

I'm not really familiar with Hamburg geography yet, so any help very much appreciated. Many thanks

You can try the usual web sites like Immobilien Scout24 (quick search gave 174 houses for rent within 20km radius of 20459 Hamburg under 2000 euro) or Immopool (31 houses for rent within 20km radius)

Make sure you specify that you want to rent a house instead of an apartment (Mieten / Häuser)

Take a look here ...

Thanks guys, this is a big help. Wouldn't have known where to start otherwise.

Vattenfall (at least thats their telephone number)... I presume you have visited the location or at least looked on a map - quick look shows that the location is opposite the Sankt Michaelliskirche pretty well in the middle of Hamburg - slightly on the West side. If I drive into my office its usually down that road & since I now work from home I'm glad I don't have to drive that stretch! I would seriously recommend you looking at using public transport at least within Hamburg (seems to be a S-Bahn station close by).


If you will use the S-Bahn I think its the S1 (Wedel = to the West) & S21 (Pinneberg = to the North West). If your place of work is in the centre you can look in all directions. You could even live South of the river BUT I would not do that if you still plan to come in by car.


IMHO you have to invest some time & money to visit the area & look in which area you want to live. Depends on your outside interests maybe. Do you sail boats? Fly gliders? Ride horses? All that could influence where you might want to stay.

I live out to the North-West (Pinneberg area). Where we are there are green fields opposite with occasional deer, bussards fly overhead & we are 5 mins from the A23 Autobahn...

Thanks for your advice HEM, yes I have been over to their offices twice, and heard that it was pretty central. Am planning two or three trips over the next 8 weeks or so, so was hoping to have done as much net-based research as possible beforehand to get the most out of the trips. With regards your last point, I'm probably looking for somewhere with more countryside/outdoor feel as long as it is feasible commuting-wise.

Something like Death Valley HEM eh?

Then you are probably looking to live outside Hamburg; either in Schleswig-Holstein (North of the river) or in Niedersachsen (to the South).
I know the area West & NorthWest of Hamburg reasonably well. I would estimate the commute by car from where I live to your place of work to be 40 minutes unless it all glues up. Using car to S-Bahn station then train probably a little longer but less stress.

South of the river (Niedersachsen) is the Lüneburger Heide with nice little villages, lots of horses & probably a bit warmer than in the North. As I said it depends on your interests - if you want to go surfing in the Baltic or the North Sea each weekend its probably less optimal to live in Niedersachsen. Do you need fast access to the airport?

BTW: a little more info in your profile would not come amiss...

Not quite as hot...

Dont go south of Hamburg cause as HEM said traffic is hell across the bridges or tunnel in the mornings and isn't better after work.

Unless he uses rail transport maybe. I must say if I were setting up here knowing my place of work was in the centre I'd be tempted to live South of the river (because the gliding conditions are better there) BUT I'd be looking at rail transport or Work From Home... Could do that now I suppose but the roots are down...

Well Stade is an option with the new S-Bahn going there. Harburg/Bergedorf etc. I would stay away from. Isn't Stade Airbus territory?

We just moved to Reinbek which is nice and it's just 30min/40min from Downtown by public transit or by car.

Bergedorf is to the East (Bismark country). If you go South you want to go further than that; implies a fair commute. For a small town Lüneburg might be of interest. In my case I'd be more interested in a small village...

Yes; problem with Finckenwerder / Stade area is that its Airbus country. When Airbus boomed lots engineers with lots money bought up the houses then they hit the rocks & lots of houses were dumped on market now I suspect its going back...

The West of Hamburg (Rissen, Wedel) tends to be a bit expensive which is why we moved from Wedel to Kreis Pinneberg when looking for a house back in 1989...

What are you looking for in terms of town/village size? classic suburbia or out with the cows?

For newly-arrived residents in the HVV service area ... Line and route network plans

Personally wouldn't mind your classic suburban set-up, as I say looking for a quiet area above all. Would consider being out in the sticks if I could drive in in under an hour each way. So you guys reckon south of river is out if I'm going to be driving? Just having a look at the map to isolate areas that I would need to search in when I'm over. Hard to judge scale on the maps, will probably end up in Denmark...

YES. Possibility is car/bike to rail station then train.


That will take a little more than 1 hour. You still havn't responded as to your interests (which may depend also on yr kid's ages... - I have kids but they are now 19 & 16 - years not months)

EDIT: Ok yr 25 so kids are likely to be rather young...
Which part of Manchester? I came from ooop North...

Google Earth gives you a pretty decent impression of Hamburg and the surrounding areas ... and the rest of the world

Yep, kids 2 and 1 yr old - so really just after outdoor space in the form of a large private garden. Plan on making a few weekenders to surrounding countries/other parts of germany. As long as the area is not very built up/busy, don't mind too much.Greenery would be a plus. I am of course willing to compromise as I realise it may not be possible to get everything on my list. Don't need to be near to airports.

We're from Oldham in Gr. Manchester, haved lived all over really - was in Knutsford for a while -But been working in London & Dublin.

Out where I am to the North West we get some aircraft noise but not usually excessive...


My father's family came from Oldham; my aunts used to live in Chadderton.
I grew up in Bramhall, school in Stockport & my parents (& I) last lived in Plumley which isn't a million miles from Knutsford...

Heres the low down on travel times east of Hamburg taking into consideration that its the usual commute traffic.

in/out Downtown

45/60.min

Bad Oldesloe:little town with everything you need (no English community ,except my brother and wife 10min further north,or night life)
Lübeck:very nice city also with everything you need small English community but a little far from Hamburg for commuting (in my humble opinion).Is serviced by Ryan air on a cute airfield.
Ahrensburg:Satellite of Hamburg that has the advantage of being close th Hamburg. Would suggest something 5min outside of Ahrensburg.

30/45min

Reinbek/Glinde and surroundings. Hey I live here and I have everything your looking for Huge woods for walks and Walmart and Home hardware stores all in a 10min radius. No big city problems here and only a short commute to culture because trust me it can get boring if your not always into gardening

Lüneburg is also nice as HEM mentioned ranks in cuteness with Lübeck( was not bombed to smitherines).

Feel free to ask more cause me and HEM are just full of it

Lüneburg is a "salt" town just like Northwich (down the road from Knutsford). Some houses lean for same reasons...

Yes, Plumley not too far at all...small world. Anything you miss about cheshire?

Cheese maybe. But apart from that not really that much.

Not the biggest cheese fan, so that won't be a problem! Appreciate everyone's help on this, I at least have some idea what I'm going to do on my next trip then. So all the properties I see listed on these sites, are they all through agents (and hence necessitate the paying of high fees)?

Stay over a weekend, hire a car & drive around a lot.


I'm not much help to you there living in own house since 1989. MapleLeaf?

Own house too. But I gather all are agent fee houses unless explicitly stated private.

Maybe you should really consider an area where at least a few English speakers are around. If you wife is at home with the kids all day, and she doesn't speak German, she might find it really hard. In Nothern Germany most people speak English quite well, are even quite eager to practise their English, but she might miss something more familiar...
In Bergedorf there's a few English speakers that I know, also there's a small English speaking community in Lüneburg (which I agree is a really lovely little town, would love to live there). If you don't mnd the English speakers so much, the area around Wedel might be interesting for you. I have a friend who lives in Hetlingen. little village, there's always a few houses to rent, it's very close to the river Elbe, lovely area. She takes the car to Wedel S-Bahn station and then the train, sometimes she drives the car to a P+R place in Hamburg and takes the train from there, either way, it takes her about 1 hour (she also works in city centre).

If your budget is €2000 you shouldn't have a problem to find something decent.

Personally, I would suggest Halstenbek. It's a lovely area, small but not too small. Takes you abt. 30 minutes by car to city centre (if there's no jam) or abt. 30 minutes ride on the S3 from Halstenbek to Stadthausbrücke,which for Vattenfall I think is the station that you would need to get off. Friends of mine live there and I grew up at the border to Halstenbek. I'd highly recommend it. And even if there's no native speakers directly in Halstenbek, it's only a short trip to Hamburg for your wife and the kids if she wants to go to a meetup...

Stade and Finkenwerder are really nice, lots of expats, but as said before, the prices are too high due to high demand...

Unfortunately, yes. Most of the properties listed will be through agents unless specifially stated that they are being privately rented. The key words to keep an eye out for are
Kaution oder Genossenschaftsanteile (damage/security deposit or fees)
Provision (commission) - generally two or three months rent

Most places will have both sets of fees attached. Sometimes you'll see an add that states "für Mieter courtagefrei" or "provisionsfrei" which usually means there's no commission, just the security deposit. As usual, check the fine print but these additional costs are clearly indicated near the bottom of the ad.

Another thing to watch out for are Nebenkosten. Rents are usually given without any utilities, heating or possible additional maintenance fees. "Kaltmiete" is just the basic rent. Often the ads will give a total estimate of monthly costs with heating etc, which is called "Warmmiete" but it can sometimes be a little on the low side. Initial searching is usually done only with the basic rental costs so you actually need to search for under 2000 euros if that is your monthly total budget for a place to live. I'd suggest an upper limit of around 1500.

Wedel itself is a wuite expensive area, being both on the S-Bahn (terminus) and on the river Elbe...


Hetlingen is really out in the sticks - without a car you are pretty well cut off. Great if you like the peace & quiet. Could appeal to me


Certainly convenient for OP's place of work by S-Bahn although I would not call Halstenbek a town - its more dormitory for HH.
Likely to cost less than in Wedel...

Thanks for all the advice everyone, plenty to get my teeth in to for my next trip over...If anyone else has any suggestions of locations I should check out please feel free to suggest

Just to add to the general info, your one hour maximum commute would cover you up to a bit north of Itzehoe on the A23 and about Neumünster on the A7. Certainly around Itzehoe you shouldn't have any problem finding quite a nice house (~120 qm) for 2K€.

The Saturday "Hamburger Abendblatt" takes some beating
if you are looking for accomm. in and around HH.
Not that I want to promote the Axel Springer group...

We are new expats from California... I didn't really want to live in the 'big city' as I have a 3 year old, and wanted some space, like back home (where I have a huge garden!). We chose Holm-Seppensen, which is just south of Hamburg where my husband is working. He says the commute is a breeze. Our rent for a 4 story home is 1200 E per month; this is a STEAL by Calif. standards. Buchholz is the nearby 'real city' with everything you could probably want. e.g. I am in the process of looking for doctors, and there are plenty.

The home is brand new (still not finished!), and I believe there may be 2 still available in the development... PM me if you want the address -- it would be great to have some English speaking neighbors! There are tons of kids there. The public playground is nice, there's a train station, and the Kindergarten looks fabulous. Oh, and there is a California cuisine restaurant, woo hoo!

good luck with the search!