Moving to Heidelberg from abroad

Hi everybody,
I work for a German company and I accepted an offer to work for 3 or 4 years in its headquarters. I am moving my family to Heidelberg in January, but I have a budget limit for house renting (around Eu 1100 per month), given by the company, so we want to find a good place for living.
We like green areas, and also we would like to be not far from the Heidelberg International School. Additionally we have a small dog that will be moving with us, since she is a member of our family! We have already navigated for a while in http://www.immobilienscout24.de and some others sites, but nothing good appeared, so we are a little bit disappinted.
Please could you make any recommendation or comment to help us?
Thank you in advance!

Well, it depends on what you consider as "nothing good". Heidelberg is a quite prosperous place and 1100 Euro will probably not be sufficient to rent a substantial house. Immobilienscout offers a good insight into what the market is offering and getting anything cheaper than what is being offered there requires a piece of luck.

Yes - it is quite difficult to find a affordable house in a popular area like Heidelberg. You may want to include in your search flats/condos - they are very well built and can be beautiful and spacious too. Sometimes they even come with a garden. I am not sure you are aware that on top of the rental costs you will have to pay for water, electricity and heating.

If you haven't already, then you should also negotiate real estate agent fees into your moving package. Many properties are given over to agents that charge the renter up to 2.38 months rent plus VAT for the privilege of renting. The agents provide zero service to you and are only in business for themselves. Basically they are the lowest of the low in this society excluding neo-nazis.

There are many posts on this forum regarding housing in Heidelberg and you should use the search function to find them.

Assuming you have children, for 1100 you could get a row house in one of the outlying suburban towns in the flat areas like Leimen, Oftersheim, Plankstadt, Schwetzingen etc or up in the hills in Gaiberg, Leimen-Gauangelloch, Bammental (but commuting is more difficult) etc but Heidelberg will be hard to find something at that price with a garden in Heidelberg itself. If you are OK with an apartment then 1100 could get you something suitable in Rohrbach, Wieblingen, Kircheim, Ziegelhausen but the more central areas will be more difficult.

Also be aware that some rental properties do not have kitchens installed. If this is the case, you will have to buy one that could cost anywhere from 3,000 to 7,000 euros. So when you look on the scout24 website, look for EBK (kitchen) installed and this should save you a few bucks.

You may want to broaden your search to include some other towns in the area. Heidelberg is expensive especially near the town centre. Neighborhoods within or near HD that tend to be more expensive are Handschuheim and Neunheim. However, places like Ziegelhausen/Schlierbach, Kirchheim, Rohrbach, and Dossenheim are further from the town centre and tend to be cheaper (though you'll still probably be limited to an apartment). Pfaffengrund and Eppelheim are also decent areas that are relatively close to the International School. If you can't find something in any of these places that meets your needs, you could always look someplace slightly further out like Leimen or Nussloch. These communities are generally cheaper but may be too far out for you. We certainly found this to be the case, but we also don't have a car. It really depends on what you're looking for (sq. m, how many rooms, etc) and if you're planning on having a car. Here are a few threads that have addressed the neighborhoods or house hunting in Heidelberg.

http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=144202
http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=94198
http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=130016&st=0&p=1606928&fromsearch=1&#entry1606928

Die Business Nanny made a good point about rent. You'll often be given prices in Kalt rent (without heat) + Nebenkosten. Apt/house prices with heat are called warm. You'll also have to ask what is included in the Nebenkosten when you look at places. If you haven't already found it, there's a nice TT wiki thread on the subject of apartment rental, and this is a link with definitions of many housing ad acronyms.

Good luck

Heidelberg is a great place with a high quality of life (IMHO) and you're bound to enjoy your time here. But you'll need to top-up that budget your employer has offered you. How big is your family plus dog? Or, how much space do you need in terms of rooms and square footage (convert into sqm)?

You might not find too many large green areas inside Heidelberg (like central park in New York or English Garden in Munich), except maybe the castle gardens and along the Neckar, but you'll see the green areas since HD is bordered by beautiful hills. so you're never too far from nature.

anyhow, will you have a car to commute to work or will you leave it with your wife (who i assume will stay home and look after the kids) and you will commute by public transportation (which is fantastic here)? this could make it easier for you to live outside heidelberg and get by with your housing allowance.

You may want to extend your search to the suburban areas between Heidelberg and Mannheim, as long as it's near Tram 5. Rent prices are lower and it's easy to go downtown HD and to the International School (there is a tram stop right next to it). If your kids are older, they may even be able to go to school by themselves.
If you work for the big company with the "3 letters" in Walldorf (as a lot of the non-military expats in Heidelberg do), it'd be a 25min commute by car.

Dear all: thank you very much for the answers, me and my family are gladly surprised with such an amount of quick feedback. Particularly valuable in this moment, when we are happy and excited, but also full of uncertainty and therefore thousand of questions in our heads and hearts.

We have one (wonderful) 8 years old daughter, and the priority is to have a short trip to the Heidelberg International School every day. No problem at all with commuting by tram, since my wife is going to stay at home at least during the first year. My office is going to be located in Ludwigshafen, so I guess that I am going to need a car to go down there, unless there was some transport available (such as a tram or a train). (you can see that the chemical company is not 3-letters...)

Regarding the space, we are thinking in a 150 sqm house, with 4 bedrooms and some garden to keep our pet happy. Again, I took a look to internet real state sites and found out that is not possible to achieve this kind of accommodation with Eu1100 (kalt), but my employer keeps saying that it is affordable. I can top-up the budget, but my pocket will have some limitations, and the intention avoid it. That is the reason why we are a little bit concerned ...

oh, then your search is in the wrong direction. you need to focus on the areas between Mannheim and Heidelberg, leaving out HD altogether, seriously! Your daughter is 8, kids that age ride the tram independently or in groups so look near tram line 5 so she can easily get on that.

btw, there are trams that go to B**F. so you probably wouldn't need to drive to work. If you stay a wee bit south of Mannheim, taking into considering you want to be on the #5 tram line, you'll both have a reliable way to get to work and school. you would probably need 45 minutes. my commute from MA to that company with the 3 letters is just shy of an hour one way.

Seckenheim is nice for that, between Mannheim and HD, right on number 5 (OEG) tramline and close to HIS, some very nice housing, lower prices than HD and some small-town charm.

Edingen and Neckarhausen have some nice-ish bits and the latter is pretty inexpensive for the space one can get.

Two other possible areas to look in between HD & MA would be Edingen and Wieblingen. Both are also on the No.5 tram line and quite close to HIS.

EDIT: liebling got there before me.

Edingen is a bit nicer than Neckarhausen IMO.

Seckenheim is a very nice town. The main Hauptstr is a little rough and dated but the southern part of town is very very nice and NEW. I'm sure you can find something. You will also be closer to the RB trains which offer a faster commute into HD Hbf from there you can take the tram to the international school. I don't know about the commute to the chemical company. But given its size, I cannot imagine it would be difficult.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll enjoy living and working in Germany.

You should also check the ads in the local Heidelberg newspaper: http://www.rnz.de/RNZ_Anzeigen_Top/templateimmovermietungen_rnz.php. (new ads appear on Saturday).

To find out whether public tra(i)nsportation could be an alternative: www.db.de (German rail)
Urban trains between Hd-Ma-Lu run quite often.
Switch to English and do an advanced search. You can enter stations (train/tram/bus) or addresses.
BASF as destination works. Remember BASF is 4 miles long! There are 14 bus or tram stations close to the BASF (and one within the BASF).
You need to know which gate is next to your office.
Have fun!.