Residential districts of Düsseldorf

I am moving to Germany this summer, does anyone recommend any particular areas of Düsseldorf? I contacted a real estate company who gave me a listing of places just outside the city centre in Rath and Heerdt. Are these good areas? I particularly am interested in area that is close to public transportation. Which areas of the city are multicultural?

if you could list a few more things which are a priority for you it, would be easier to help (ie family neighbourhood with parks etc or somewhere for a single person close to the centre etc) and your price range of course.

Maybe the proximity to any Nudist gardens in Düsseldorf?

My main criteria is a
1) Area for young people(me and my boyfriend are both under 30, I look 22 )
2)Access to public transportation.
3)Night activities such as clubs and bars.
4)Nearby shops.
Any recommended areas in central Düsseldorf?

I am not interested in a family neighborhood, my current hometown of Boston is conservative and uptight enough, I want to be naughty.

Rath is not a great area, decayting industry, close to the airport. Heerdt is alos mostly industrial. If you have kids, I'd recommend gerresheim. If not, Bilk.

Bilk/Unterbilk
Derendorf
Golzheim (Near to Rheinpark)
Oberkassel (other side of the Rhein but close enough to the Altstadt)
Karlstadt

All are central and good areas to live. Lots of shopping/bars close to hand. Golzheim and Oberkassel slightly more expensive rent prices.
Public transport infrastructure in Ddorf is actually very good. Never seem to wait longer than 10 mins for bus/tram/underground/train.

I would recommend the following districts

Unterbilk
Very close to the already big but still growing former harbour area with lots of bars, restaurants etc.; Unterbilk itself offers good shopping opportunities for daily needs (no upscale fashion etc. though)

Karlstadt
Directly on the Rhine with beautiful old houses; North of Unterbilk; relatively close to the former harbour area, but also close to the Altstadt with its countless pubs. Shopping is good as well.

Pempelfort
North of the Altstadt; couple of nice bars and pubs; shopping is ok

Oberkassel
Across the river but also has its own pubs and restaurants; good shopping; considered the poshest area of Düsseldorf

Generally I would say that access to public transportation actually shouldn't be an issue anywhere except for the really outer areas of Düsseldorf. Nightlife centres are the Altstadt and to a lesser degree the former harbour area (which id much posher though).

The following link might be helpful fpr you as you can get detailed maps of Düsseldorf (and most other areas of Germany) plus you can get aerial views (similar to Google Earth) to give you a rough impression of what it looks like
Maps and aerial views of Germany

Other possible, cheaper, neighbourhoods are: Flingern and Oberbilk
Flingern is full of funky shops and bars, and easy to reach from the center of town
Oberbilk is on the other síde of the train tracks, but has a great park (Volksgarten) and the neighbourhood is fairly mixed (Kurds, Morrocans, Germans, and few ex-pats).
Derendorf/Pempelfort are nice, but more stodgy
Oberkassel is overpriced
check out www.immoscout24.de for listings

I lived in Oberkassel for a few months a couple of years back and really enjoyed it. Its a nice area, so close to the Altstadt, some nice cafes, but yes indeed, it is on the pricy side. That said, some of the appartments/buildings there are amazing. Some of my friends lived in Bilk, but I found that a little depressing - I suppose its a little more 'real' than the pefectness of oberkassel. good luck and enjoy D'dorf!

I am enjoying Oberkassel - it suits all your points I think... I hear that the river port is an upcoming area, but still not very well connected by public transport.

I lived in Düsseltal near the Zoo on Rethelstraße for a year which suits all you listed above.

Is Oberbilk a good area? I found a renovated 45 sqm 2 room flat for 420EUR a month.

Some parts of Oberbilk are nicer than others, but it is generally well-connected transport-wise. Do you have an intersection for that flat?

My partner's job is relocating to an office at the mediaharbour in Düsseldorf this summer, so we're planning to move out there. Our son will probably go to the international school at kaiserswerth. (I have no idea yet what I'll be doing) .

I've been scanning the internet for information about the city's residential areas, so that we're not starting from scratch when we go out there to try to find a place, but I'm finding it very hard to get a feel for what the different areas are like. I have in mind a detached place with a garden (just a small space to sit out in the summer would be enough), with easy transport links to the school and the media harbour. Are there any good residential areas which would have that sort of thing without costing a fortune?? From browsing the net, Kaiserswerth and Lohausen look promising, but I don't know how long it would take to get to the mediaharbour from there, or if it would be a nightmare doing it in rush hour.

Any inside information would be much appreciated - cheers.

p.s. What a great site this is, I think I'll be coming here a lot!

Topics merged by admin

Niederkassel !

Many thanks - will check it out.

Are you going to be mobile? By that I mean have you got your own car?

If so then try looking a little bit outside the city. Willich/Viersen/Anrath are all about 20-30mins by car from the town centre.

Thanks - we had been planning to get by without a car, but pretty much everything's negotiable really, so I'll take a look. Much appreciated!

Might wanna try the north suburbs so your son can hop on the U79 every morning easily to ISD and likewise it would be an ok commute for your husband. Golzheim area is nice. Close to centre but only 10-odd minutes tram ride to ISD and same to altstadt/main train station.
Or you could just join the ISD ghetto and live in Kaiserswerth, Wittlaer or Lohausen!
You should do a google.de search for "mietwohnungen" (rental apartments). A lot of good sites there like immobilienscout24 etc.

Hi,

I will be moving to Düsseldorf in the middle of August for the foreseeable future (work), and I'm researching places to live. I'm male, 28, and love a good party. :-) I also like being able to stroll from my place to a nearby cafe for a spot of reading, or cycle/walk somewhere not-too-far for a bit of exercise (gym + park for running/rollerblading). For those of you familiar with London, I live in Clapham (or, "South Chelsea", as we like to call it these days :-p). Is there anywhere similar in Duesseldorf? I've been doing some research into Pempelfort and Oberkassel, and they seem to fit the bill. What are your thoughts? The kind of place I'm looking for is a 2-room (i.e. 1 bedroom + 1 living room), in the range of 60-80sq m, balcony (perferable large terrace) with a nice view. My ideal budget is about 700-1000 EUR per month, warmmiete. Also, where are the best places to look for accommodation and what is involved? Wow, lots of questions. Thanks in advance!

S

Hi NewDorfer

Some may disagree, but my equation would be approx PempelFort def Clapham area, Derendorf the other end of Fulham, Ober KAssels's quite nice although these tend to be the families, probably Highgate, West Hampstead and further North. Bilk is more bedsit area, tempted to say imagine Whitechapel but not so colourful, perhaps closer to Tooting Ö). FriedrichStadt's quite nice a little like Islington. Flingern at the StadtMitte end has touches of Camden and Kentish Town about it.

It's not easy to get decent apartments and most tend to be unfurnished and a large number you'd have to install your own Kitchen. Furnished places, as you'd expect you'd have to pay a premium. I reckon your budget's about right for a decent area and size, the agency fees (Provision) is the killer as its the tenants responsibility to pay these characters up to three months rent as a one-off thank you payment for them introducing you to the apartment. It's very very competitive for the better places and I think you'd find it nigh impossible to compete for these unless they meet you. Also. three months deposit (kaution) is standard.

Do you speak ok German, there's loads of sites to find places although I found that a large number of these had already gone when the agency eventually returned my call/email eg you need to be quick and you need to hassle. The following are my preferred:
http://www.wg-gesucht.de/
http://www.immobilienscout24.de
http://www.mwz24.de

Happy Hunting

Mark

Good luck with your search. I just signed my Mietvertrag last Tuesday for a nice little place in Pempelfort and can't wait for the end of the month to move over properly.

I hadn't gotten around to cancelling my immobilienscout email alerts and one place in Derendorf showed up this morning - sounded like such a great deal I would have been afraid to go for it for fear of it being simply too good to be true! Think it was 59 sq.m. for 300 cold and 435 warm.

I don't know London but have been told by anyone I asked about areas in Düsseldorf that Pempelfort and Derendorf are definitely the nicest areas. Oberkassel is lovely as well but more expensive I think and more than one person told me that it's a very snobby area - I got the impression it's the kind of place where people live in houses for generations rather than just a few years. I never actually managed to get an appoointment to see anywhere there though so can only repeat the hearsay.

Good luck with your move!

I like the London comparisons by Groovalax though I reckon its Oberbilk which would be more like Whitechapel, Bilk itself is the university area and so is quite nice so I'd go for Bayswater. I wouldn't forget Dusseltal which is fairly leafy and residential so maybe Barnes.

Though whatever the comparisons Düsseldorf is a much smaller than London so the comparisons are watered down quite a bit and if you like to party you will probably be going out mainly in the Altstadt anyway so you just want to be reasonably close to there, so Pemplefort would be fine.

I think it would be fairly tough to find a permanent flat in advance whilst you're not here as there is a lot of competition and they get snapped up fairly quickly. It took me 2 months of searching until I got accepted for one that I liked. So I would get a temporary furnished apartment through an agency initially (e-rent and MWZ were one's I used to arrange viewings) and then search for something permanent when you're based here (immobilienscout24.de, immowelt.de and kalyado.de are websites I used).

Many thanks for the comments. I´ll be concentrating my search on Pempelfort and Derendorf. Luckily, my company will pay my agency fees and I think they´ll sort out some appointments for me once I decide the area I want. I´m going to try and set some viewings up for this month so that I can just move straight in mid-August. Once I´ve selected a place, I think my company will handle all the details... I hope, because Ich spreche kein Deutsch. :-)

I had typed a reply yesterday and then lost it so here's a shorter version. I'm not sure what it's like renting in London but in Dublin you essentially have to turn up with the cash for a deposit in your hand if you want to be absolutely sure of getting the place you've just looked at. So far in Düsseldorf my experience has been exactly the opposite and it's more likely to take at least a week or two to get all the paperwork etc in place. I went over to look at place on the weekend of 7th June (having spent the week before trawling the websites and making appointments), viewed about 10 places, phoned one estate agent on Monday morning to say I wanted the place he'd shown me, he sent me a one-page form (Selbstauskunft Formular) to fill out with current address details, employment/salary details etc and I sent it back to him with a copy of my passport. He sent it on to the management company and they started to prepare the rental contract. Got that emailed to me a week later (i.e. 17th June but had to chase them on it to get it that quickly) and I made an appointment then to go in person to sign the contract on 30th. I now have an appointment on 31st July to meet the management company and the person who's moving out in the apartment and we'll go through each room and fill out a form confirming the condition of everything and then I get the keys and can move in on 1st August.

The agency is Mario Kuball Immobilien and although I'd wanted to try and get somewhere without paying a provision it was the most suitable place and Mario seemed like a decent guy (has offered to put me in touch with people to install a kitchen etc without having to pay too much - we'll see if that pans out or not). Let me know if you want his contact details - he actually held this apartment for me for the week until I could get over to see it, seemed fascinated by the idea someone from Ireland wanted to live in Germany. He gave me some good tips on the different areas as well.

As your company is helping you out that should make a huge difference to you - I wouldn't fancy having to have organised the whole thing with limited German. There are a few threads around about the differences in renting in Germany (such as the whole kitchen situation that takes a lot of people by surprise), you should have a search and read through.

Good luck!