Cheaper housing areas/suburbs around Heidelberg - Germany

Hello All,
this is my first posts. My husband has received a job offer from the University of Heidelberg. I am in the process of learning as much as I can before we have to decide yes or no. So, I know Heidelberg itself is expensive, I am hoping for suggestions on outlying areas that are 1. Cheaper then Heidelberg and 2. Have easy access to the University (via train or bus or subway, whichever is the mode of public transport).
Right now we live about 10 minutes away from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (where my husband currently works) and we have a 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment at 1,000 sq. ft.- we pay $760 a month and we live comfortably in that amount of space and price, so I am hoping I can find something similar. I would appreciate any help, insight or input- neither of us have been to Germany, so this is a brand new experience for us.
thanks so much!!

Hi.

First off, I'm biased. My girlfriend is an alum, so I'll help with whatever I can.

Secondly, I sadly can't help with too much.

We live 30 minutes from Mannheim (west) and our rent is shockingly affordable compared to what we were paying in Chicago. It would naturally be more in Mannheim, and even more in Heidelberg, but I think you'll be happy with what you find. We're considering moving to Mannheim for numerous reasons, and if you want to be in a city and still be able to get to Heidelberg with ease, there's probably no better place to live. 15 minutes on the train. That's not even long enough to call it a "commute" in my book. Couple sips of coffee and he's at work.

But that's if you want a city. There are a ton of nice towns all over the area you're moving to, so if you want a small, pretty town there won't be a problem. But if you want a city, Mannheim would be my recommendation.

Best of luck!

Thanks for the tips Bohemka! I went online and searched the Mannheim area, the prices and sizes seem very reasonable. Were you able to find a place with kitchen appliances, etc provided or did you have to buy them? I am wondering how much it costs to outfit a kitchen with everything!! (what a weird thought)

About 500 euro for 90 m² - what you pay now... should be doable in the above. It likely won't be doable anywhere else inside Heidelberg, unless you find a cheap deal somewhere. For comparison, the lowest rent within Heidelberg for something that size is between 420 and 580 Euro, depending on the state and age of the building. But that's for Emmertsgrund, everywhere else in Heidelberg is pricier. In a comparable site to your place, 10 minutes from university, that'd be more like 750-900 Euro.

Within Heidelberg, probably the cheapest that would probably be somewhat acceptable would be the Boxberg suburb in the South, or Wieblingen in the Northwest. Maybe also Kirchheim.

Immediately outlaying areas from Heidelberg:
- Eppelheim (favourite with students)
- Dossenheim (more of a family suburb)
- Edingen (bit far out for most people)
- Plankstadt (beyond Edingen; commute not effective without a car)
Anywhere south of Heidelberg either has jacked-up prices due to SAP, or isn't very recommendable.

As for easy access to the university... it actually depends where in the university. Altstadt Campus or Neuenheimer Feld Campus, where in Neuenheimer Feld etc. All uni areas are pretty easy to reach by public transport. It would actually be far harder to reach em by car, since parking around those areas is both pricey and rather limited.
All of the above mentioned areas have a public transport connection to both primary university grounds. Commute - depends, but ranges between 10 and 30 minutes on public transport, with switching.

Areas east of Heidelberg except for Neckargemünd should be avoided due to their really bad public transport connection. Although i hear from people in e.g. Wiesenbach that they like their "one-bus-every-2-hours" connection, i wouldn't really recommend it.

Indeed, Mannheim is cheap. Although you gotta watch a bit where you end up there, also regarding commute. With Mannheim, commute times heavily depends on where you live - if you live in MA-Rheinau or -Schönau and depend on public transport to get to Heidelberg, big urgh. Northern Käfertal or Wallstadt - even worse.
Lindenhof or Schwetzinger Vorstadt would probably be the best choices there for Mannheim.

There are a number of communities around Ludwigshafen that are - like in bohemka's case - shockingly cheap. In Waldsee, appartments even beat Mannheim-Jungbusch in price, and that's rather hard. Problem is that with most of those, if there even is reasonable public transport, a commute to Heidelberg would last between 90 minutes and 2 hours (estimate).

Try Leimen, Schwetzingen, Waldorf also

Maverick,

Firstly tell your husband to accept , it is great here and a nice city, plenty of other Americans too, in case you get homesick oir something.

As to apartments Eppelheim is about 20mins on the strassenbahn (depending on time of day), Leimen is about 30, other areas you may find something are Rohrbach & Kirchheim. I would stay away from Emmetsgrund and Boxberg, looks a bit yucky up there to me :-) also Plankstadt and Schwetzingen are a pain as you have to get the bus in to Eppelhiem and then get the strassenbahn, there are some busses from Schwetzingen to Heidelberg but they take forever. I also wouldn't recommend Waldorf, too close to SAP so the prices are way inflated.I live in Eppelheim so will have a look at the local rag & see what the prices are like.

As for fitted kitchens, more and more places come with the kitchen now you need to look for Einbauküche, have a look at this site to give you an idea of what you will get and where for the price Immobelienscout 24h. Also ask your husband to check with the Uni, I am sure they will provide some assistance with finding somewhere.

Good luck

I have some friends that also work at the university (the Neuenheimer Feld campus) and they live in Dossenheim. It looks rather nice over there. They actually cycle to work, weather permitting, of course.

Cato is spot on with his comment about Mannheim: you should try to get into a central location; otherwise the commute could take ca. 1 hour using public transport.

Walldorf? You joking. Stay in Heidelberg - you'll pay the same prices.

And don't expect to get a 1000 sq ft (90 sqm) flat in Heidelberg so easily and for a good price. Lower your standards a bit, if you can, to 70-75 - might be a squeeze, but that's Europe for ya.

Wow!! Thanks for everyone's advice and input. I really wasn't expecting so many people to respond, what a great message board!!
The more blogs I read, the more I want to say 'yes' to moving to Germany. It seems so freakin' awesome and such a great experience. My husband will be in contact with the University soon so we will find out if they can help us with the apartment hunt if we accept the job. I have many more questions, so its great to know the members of this board are so helpful!!

THANKS!!!

Just sounds like a good thread to put this into.

The official Mietspiegel map (average rents) for Heidelberg: http://www.abload.de/img/mietspiegelj2j.jpg

The city has 15 different "price levels", rent-wise. These price levels are shown here in comparison to the cheapest "level" - which is Emmertsgrund, with 0%. Effectively this means that if you have two identical apartments in say Emmertsgrund and Neuenheim-Ost, the one in Neuenheim-Ost will cost 47% more.

Average basic rent level, before adding these percentages, for an apartment between 75 and 100 m² (the size you'd be looking for probably): between 4.68 and 6.32 Euro per m² (cold). Depends on age of the building, run-down 60s Platte of course being the cheapest.

The Mietspiegel is an official measuring tool for rent levels in Heidelberg; it also outlines higher or lower rents depending on the equipment and environment of the apartment (ranging from -70% to +32% from base rent level).
Landlords may not go significantly (more than about 20%) above the levels outlined in the current Mietspiegel when signing new contracts.

The university is located right smack around those neighborhoods with the +40% signs (or more) btw.

I have a friend in Mannheim who may be looking to sell her kitchen furnishings. I'll ask her and have her post if she really is. She's just thought about it lately. Nice stuff though.

Melissa

I don't know if you are still looking, but we live in Dossenheim and love it. It is close to fields and gardens and the forest for walking, plus it is only a 15 min bike ride from the university through fields, so no busy traffic. Also the 5 tram runs through here and can get you to Heidelberg fast. There is very good food here and the people are a little friendlier than Heidelberg. We have a 2 bedroom place that is about 700 sq ft for €700/mo including extra costs. If anyone else is living in Dossenheim let me know, we are looking for some nice friends also. My wife and I have a 4 mo old daughter and a dog.