Short-term apartment rental in Berlin

Hi,

Myself and my husband are looking to rent an apartment in Berlin from the 1st of April for 4-6 months. We are both writers looking for a quiet working break in Berlin. We are reliable, quiet, non-smokers that supply references, deposit etc.

Unfortunately we have had a terrible time finding anything. We put an ad on Craigslist and nearly got pulled in by a scammer who used a stolen passport as identification. Then we found a lovely apartment, only to have the deal fall through at the last minute. We have tried all the usual websites - http://www.immobilienscout24.de/, http://www.studenten-wg.de/ etc.

I think the particular difficulty we are having is that we are based in Dublin in Ireland and have only ein bisschen Deutsch. And also the fact that we cannot commit to longer than 6 months.

Does anyone know how I could get in contact with any of the university noticeboards, as this arrangement may suit Erasmus students or travelling lecturers? Or if you have any other suggestions, all advice would be very welcome, as at this stage we are getting quite disheartened.

Here are two companies specialised in short-term accommodation with web sites in English:

Zeit-Raum

city-wohnen

You might want to try http://www.wg-gesucht.de

They usually have flat shares, but sometimes you can find apartments.

Good luck!

Hey,
thanks for the suggestions. I will check these sites out today.

Fingers crossed as we would really like to visit Berlin.

I don't know if they have a similar paper in Berlin, but in Munich I have found all my flats from a newspaper that comes out twice a week and is just full of classified ads. Most of the flats are "Provisionsfrei" - no agents fees.

here's another company who could help with your search

http://www.fineandmine.de/

Hi, i'm from Dublin and have moved to Berlin. I have to give up my current place and look for another one soon. The best place to look is www.zwischenmiete.de. Of course, most of it is in German. The rents here are so affordable compared with Dublin. That's one of the reasons I like living in Berlin - you're not always under constant financial pressure as in Dublin.

Try Exberliner flat rentals, it is english speaking service run by the Exberliner magazine, they also have a property/real estate service for those wanting to buy.
You should find a link to it from the exberliner website, just google exberliner.

Hi,

I just want to say that myself and my husband finally found a lovely apartment in Prenzlauer Berg and are signing for it next week.

Thanks for your help and advice everyone!

Hi,

Just wondering if you used one of the commission based agencies to find your apartment in the end? I'm also moving over to Berlin for 6 months from Ireland and not sure if its better to go through the german or english speaking sites.

Niall

Wohnwitz agency in Holsteinische Strasse are OK, although their furnished apartments are usually in the west, charlottenburg especially. But well worth checking out. Fineand mine.de, zeitraum ( in Kreuzberg) and crocodilian-rooms-in-berlin are all good, varied locales and prices, English speaking, with reasonable commissions. Tip, zitty and exberliner also well worth a try. And I found the wg-studenten.de/zwischenmiete site excellent, cheaper than the others, and of course you don't get hit for a commission. Found an amazing three-zimmer in Schoneberg, 90m, for 600 euros, fully furnished. Sometimes you can deal directly with the owners, otherwise the site passes on your interest to them and they get back to you.

we used wohwitz and were happy with the apartement (Wilmersdorf) they were also easy going with the checkout

I also had good luck going through Fine and Mine last year when I first moved here. They rented me a clean, stylish flat, and it was easy to arrange.

Hi
I have stayed at this apartment in Berlin. They have short and long term lets and are nice people. It has lovely restaurants and great area.

rentinberlin.net

katting

Just arrived in Berlin today, situated up towards Prenzlaurberg at the minute. Have intentions of going about looking for accommodation tomorrow, but where should I start?

(I am only looking for short term - about 3 months)

Would it be worth my while to maybe start in an agency or should I be checking out newspapers etc?.

Thanks in advance,.

Snichty

Topics merged by admin

I'm tired of searching for a wg. I've come across several options on comission-free websites (i.e. wg-gesucht.de) but nothing really worked out, especially as I am not entirely sure how long I'll stay in Berlin (either 3 or 4 or 5 months). So I'm thinking of going with an agency; one that I've looked at charges 85% of 1-month rent in commission for the duration I intend to stay in Berlin (max. 5 months). I found a 1-zimmer studio for around 450 EUR/mo in Charlottenburg, do you think this is a reasonable price? It's about 30 m^2. I guess the rent ends up being >500 EUR if I account for the commission.

Cragslist is not as popular in this side of the world the same way that it is in North America, I found that out when I initially moved to Berlin and was hoping to find stuff there because my knowledge of the language did not exist. Still I was able to find some useful stuff.
And something I was glad to discover is that it seems very common here for people that when they go on holiday they rent their apartment for the time when they are away, and sometimes for a really good price. I found places for 1 week, 2 weeks and sometimes a month. I jumped around in a few places when I arrived and had no place to live until I found my own.

So my suggestion is that you keep an eye on that before doing anything else. And if you can't find anything then it wouldnt hurt having a look at english speaking services like http://www.furnished-apartments-berlin.com or http://www.rooms-in-berlin.com . They might not be as cheap but is an alternative.