Bribery, Bias, and Bratwurst: Apartment Hunting in Germany

I felt like waving a white flag as soon as I showed up to the apartment viewing in Cologne, Germany twenty minutes early just to be the latecomer in a group of over fifty potential tenants. There I was: standing in a crowd full of Germans all of whom (even those older than I am) were accompanied with either their parents as financial guarantors or a file from their parents promising to financially support their adult children. I was behind before the race even started and I knew it.

I proceeded with the visit anyway just to have the initial experience. The apartment was hard to see due to the crowd of vultures who were already sniffing out the owner in the crowd. It was small, which is to be expected in European cities. It was a “two room” apartment which means that it contained a living room and a bedroom. The price was reasonable considering the boom in popularity that has possessed Cologne in recent months.  Price wasn’t much of a matter at that point anyway, considering the long average amount of time it takes to find an apartment here, due in part to the demanding process, unless of course you know someone.

I was not surprised to find that the procedure to rent an apartment was time consuming, but I never realized how many additional obstacles are tossed in peoples’ way. This comes from the discrimination and paranoia that define Cologne property owners. They are stuck between deciding if the act of renting their properties should be based on personal or business criteria. If only paperwork and proof of income were enough to claim a roof in this city, life here would be easier. Unfortunately, it’s not. Once you jump through all of the initial hoops, owners like to inform tenants that the apartment can only be rented to them under the conditions that they also purchase and install an entire kitchen and sometimes even the flooring (By the way –  very good and cheap option to replace the floors is Vinyl flooring: it lasts 10+ years, waterproof, affordable and even looks just like the wood or tile floor. I was looking at the affordable vinyl flooring near me and found a huge selection nearby). To make matters even more frustrating, it is the latest trend for owners to also force tenants to purchase their used furniture left behind before they agree to rent the apartment. Some people are so desperate to finally settle down that they not only buy the kitchen and used furniture, but later pay to store it all elsewhere so that they can use their own kitchen and furniture.

The process to rent an apartment in Cologne starts with the usual background check, proof of income, and copies of necessary documents. That’s fair enough, if it weren’t for the steep competition that not only raises rent prices but also forces people to resort to bribery. One father of a student wanted a particular apartment so badly for his daughter that he actually contacted the owner after a viewing visited by two hundred people and said he would pay to have an entire new kitchen installed in addition to other necessary repairs. If bribery isn’t a possibility, then it’s necessary to know many people, one of whom will eventually know someone who needs to rent an apartment. The procedure does not become easier knowing someone, but there is less competition. Regardless of whether you know someone, the average time it takes to find an apartment in Cologne is about six months or more.

I was surprised to discover some of the “apartment politics” that govern Cologne’s property market. Owners want potential tenants to not only earn enough money and pass a background check, but they also prefer them to be young students because their parents will ensure monthly rent payments on time. Oh, and you should preferably be German. But, wait: being German isn’t enough. You have to be a Cologne native and, more than that, you and your parents ideally should be from the same district of the city. What’s even more likely to ensure a signed lease is if everyone went to the same Kindergarten on the corner so that stories of how the neighborhood has changed over the years can be swapped over beer and bratwurst.

Ah, if only the requirements stopped at the paperwork and the ability to bond with owners over local treasures, but of course there is more. Germans have this regulation that stipulates that an apartment or house does not need to be equipped with a kitchen by law. I am not just referring to the refrigerator, oven, and stove, but also the sink and all of the shelves, cupboards, counters, and sometimes even the floor. This makes finding an apartment in Cologne time-consuming and difficult for everyone, especially for foreigners who may not be ready to invest that much time and money into a new city.

Cologne, Germany has always been well-known but in the last few years it has grown in popularity due to job growth and new immigration laws. This shift has affected everyone from natives of the Carnival city to foreigners trying to find apartments as prices and competition increases. The existing cultural quirks of the Germans make the experience even more stressful as tenants must put aside enough money to invest in used furniture and kitchens. Nevertheless, people from all over Germany and the rest of the world continue to come to Cologne in search of new lives.

Jacqueline Perrier-Gillette is currently a resident of Paris, France, where she lives with her husband. Together the two of them operate their small translation company, giving Jacqueline the opportunity to observe the French and their culture up close. She is an avid reader, writer, and student of foreign languages.

By Jacqueline Perrier-Gillette