hi all,

I'm moving from blighty to Nuremberg within the next couple of weeks and am currently looking for an apartment/house to let for a year.

Can anyone offer advice on good/bad areas on where to live. Had a look through the property-to-let websites and there seems to be a wide variation in price, which I can only put down to different areas.

I'll be working on Gebertstr which is in the middle of the industrial area, north east of the Nordostbahnof, so looking on a map the best area, geography wise, seems to be "Loher Moos", "Herrnhutte" or possibly Ziegelstein. Can anyone give me a brief rundown on these areas?

I've been in touch with a property agent who's sent me the details of an apartment. It's a 80sqm, 3room flat in the north of the city, but at e900 strikes me as being quite expensive. any ideas?

Cheers,

mat

Hi Mat,

EUR 900 sounds expensive, but depends on where the apartment is situated exactly. There should be less expensive apartments on the market. Nordostbahnhof itself is a pretty crappy place to live at, Herrnhütte or Ziegelstein (the latter already some kind of suburb) are much better. Anyway, Nuremberg is a rather small city (especially when compared to London), and public transport is pretty good. So it is no absolute must to live close to where you work. Even Fürth, the neighbouring city, is an option.
Just make sure your apartment is close to an "U-Bahn" (i.e., Tube) station.

The only area I would avoid completely is St. Leonhard -- a pretty rotten area at the moment. For the rest: best make sure to see some photos of the apartment and its surroundings.

Tell your property agent exactly what you want and also tell him the maximum you want to spend. And be careful with the incidental costs (Nebenkosten, abbr. NK, in German): water, electricity, and sometimes even heating costs are usually not included in the basic rent ("Kaltmiete" in German, abbr. KM), i.e., a EUR 900 "Kaltmiete" apartment can easily run up to a total of about 1300 EUR per month.

A decent 60-80 sqm 3-room apartment should be available at about EUR 500 upwards. Prices can become quite astronomic, though, if you choose to move to a hip posh area like Erlenstegen or Kleinweidenmühle.

For an overview, check the classifieds in the local newspaper.

Crying looking at those prices.

Mat you should look to the old town. More reasonable rent and easy to get to work still.

I used this website to find my place in Erlangen. There's quite a diverse selection however it is all in German. http://www.immobilienscout24.de

Thanks so far, keep 'em coming!

I'm out there weekend after next, so I'll do a trawl through the areas mentioned so far.

I think these two are probably best websites if you want to look for a room or an apartment without an agency behind the offer.

www.wg-gesucht.de
www.studenten-wg.de

best is to find an apartment close to U-Bahn stop.

To my (and most of my friends') personal experience, the apartments that offer best value for money are nearly all offered through a property agent. In Nuremberg, there are a lot of completely unrefurbished or only partly (and amateurishly) refurbished 60 - 80 sqm apartments in strange places on offer for about 450-600 EUR. Technicallly speaking, most of these are overpriced compared to completely refurbished apartments of the same size in more decent areas, which usually cost something between 500 and 700 EUR. Unfortunately, the latter are usually offered through a property agent.

So I would not advise anybody to avoid property agents completely. Simply compare the various offers and see how you can get most fost for money in the long run.

If you decide to commission a property agent, you better make absolutely clear what your demands are and that you are not willing to be shown places which "nearly" meet all your demands. That will save you from wasting a lot of time ;-)

Thanks all.

I'm finally here. Flew in over the weekend and currently writing this in starbucks after two of the strangest days in a new job ever. My company aren't being much use with the property search (I'm residing in the "penion florida" - not exactly the mayfair, but it was the only place I could find with any rooms free). They gave me the name of one company - Koenig Constructiv. Actually, very nice guy, it's just he didn't have anything on his books to suit. I've been manically emailing multiple property agents to try and find something, but it does seem most "good" properties aren't going to be available until mid-end of october. Bit of a bugger considering the lease expires on my house in blighty at the end of september. sorry, just having a moan...

so far I agree about the property agents. Blimey they're pricey, but the monthly rents tend to be cheaper. Getting similar E1000 apartments coming up for E700, but then having to pay up front 2 months rent as a fee.

Hehe, Pension Florida -- close to the Irish Castle Pub. Meet you there! Instead of waiting, get a copy of the "Nürnberger Nachrichten" on Saturday, or check the ads online.
Unfortunately, the period of notice is quite long in Germany, so it will not be easy to find something that suits you in zero time. There are some lodging hotels here in Nuremberg, which might be helpful in the meantime.