I’ve been told at work that a permanent position *might* become available in Munich in the following months. Does anyone on here live there, and if so how do you find it ?

I am already an expat, so that aspect of the job isn’t an issue to me, but I have heard bad things regarding finding a place to live/expensive housing/long commutes to get into the Centre of the city.

At the moment I am buying a place in Holland – €900 a month mortgage for a 120 sq m apartment with views over the city and a 15 minute commute.

Worked there for 5 months 20 years ago.
Loved it, fantastic city, Summer is great, Englischer Garden at weekends.
Winter, 1hr 20mins to Scheffau/Soll for skiing.

It’s the only city I’d relocate to.
I’m going for a long weekend in 2 weeks.

I stayed in hotels for my time so didn’t have to find accomodation. I bought a bike over there and commuted on that.

Have friends who went there 25 years ago and still live there and love it. Its a wealthy part of Germany so costs more comparable to London/South East than provincial UK. I used to commute 75 mins into central London, having a 15 min commute in London or Munich is going to mean high property prices/rents.

At the moment I am buying a place in Holland – €900 a month mortgage for a 120 sq m apartment with views over the city and a 15 minute commute.

That’s cheap by most standards, probably better to compare like-for-like; eg Amsterdam?

alpin does

I lived there. I found it a bit meh. Of course, I was there with my kid and pregnant wife in the suburbs, and I don’t like beer, so my experience was a little difference to being young and carefree!

I would relocate other places over Munich. House was expensive, letting agents fees were **** criminal, healthcare was expensive, naff all riding nearby (needs a fair old drive), city centre was mediocre.

By far the best memory from that 6 months was having a mid ride drink with Alpin in an alpine refuge 🙂

It’s the ideal place to start a rise to the top (mid-term prospects only).

@molgrips as aside what’s your idea of criminal agents fees ? Just curious having experienced fees in UK, US, Singapore

Fees in Germany are usually around 3 months rent (the agents work more like an estate agents rather than managing the rental). The system in Germany is really **** up all the agents fees go on the buyer/renter, everyone knows it is **** up but nothing is ever done about it.

You also have to price in that most rentals don’t come with a kitchen (or even light fittings) so you have to have one fitted.

However I found my apartment by placing a wanted add in the local paper for a few weeks, bypassed agency fees and got a kitchen.

(in another part of Germany by the way).

@molgrips as aside what’s your idea of criminal agents fees ?

It was something like £2,000 or thereabouts for doing even less than UK agents do. The landlord himself met us at the property, handed us keys and checked the place over when we left.

Absolutely shocking.

RE fittings etc – ours was aimed at the visiting professional such as we were, so was fully fitted and furnished. There are a couple of websites aimed at servicing that market IIRC, might be able to find some links if you need them.

Had a look online and a smaller, but otherwise comparable apartment was €100,000 more than I am paying for mine 🙁

There seem to be a lot of rabbit hutch-sized places going for palace prices.

If I rent, even long-term, then my organisation will subsidise the rent to a certain degree, but I don’t want to rent for the rest of my life and walk away with nothing at the end of it – my plan is to pay into an apartment, downsize come retirement time and have some cash left over to play with.

if it’s a company relocation, and you’ll be working somewhere big, then chances are there is a bulletin board with apartments coming available with other company tenants (or other contractors/staff onsite) moving on and trying to find a follow-on tenant.

saves the criminal estate agency fees, but there’ll still be the 3 month rent equivalent up front to be held in deposit account (plus the 1 month rent up front). think Holland is much the same there.

vaguely recall that it’s possible to pay that initial rent/deposit in installments? (although I too relocated NL to DE, and 3 months returned deposit went straight from dutch rental in to german rental a/c).

edit: and mine came with a few lights installed by the original developer (afaict), a few €6 ikea lights gashed in by a previous tenant, and the cheapest of the cheap kitchen from Praktiker (now bankrupt). Oh and exiting tenants usually are contractually obliged to return the decor to plain white, so expect that to be a quick flit with a paintbrush with drips everywhere. I was given the option to decorate at the start or end of the tenancy (I chose the start), and that (including the colourscheme of my choice) was written in to the contract.

@cranberry, I honestly thought the price differential would have been larger.

Ask your employer to give you a payrise to cover increased living costs. Otherwise put your capital into a UK buy-to-let and have rent cover loan costs and/or rent out the place you have in Holland.