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.