Apartment Hunting in Germany — 9 Things That Surprised Us After Moving from North America

When Duygu and I landed in Stuttgart, we thought apartment hunting would be familiar territory.

In Novi, Michigan, we’d lived at Encore at Manchester — a modern luxury apartment with an open kitchen, built-in appliances, and closets in every room.

Back there, you browse online, book a private viewing, and sign the lease. Easy.

Germany? Completely different game.

Within the first week of searching, we were confronted with things we’d never even considered. Some were small adjustments.

Others had big implications for our budget, timeline, and even our furniture.

If you’re a couple from North America thinking about making the leap — especially to Stuttgart — here’s what caught us off guard.

1. Kitchens Are Not Always Included

The first apartment we viewed was beautiful — wood floors, lots of light, perfect location.

Then we stepped into the “kitchen”… and found an empty room with a water hookup.

In Germany, it’s normal for tenants to take their kitchens with them when they move.

Not just the appliances — the cabinets, the sink, the counters, everything.

We hadn’t budgeted for a kitchen, so this was an expensive surprise.

(This one was such a big deal for us that it’s getting its own post next.)

2. “Warm” vs. “Cold” Rent

In Germany, Kaltmiete (cold rent) is the base rent, and Warmmiete (warm rent) adds building costs like water, trash, and heating.

The twist?

You pay those heating costs all year — even in the summer when you don’t use them.

In my opinion, the cold rent number doesn’t matter much, because you’re always paying the warm rent regardless.

For North Americans, this is a new concept — back home, we’re used to paying utilities as we use them.

3. Group Viewings

We did attend group viewings, and they were… strange.

Imagine an open house back in North America — but instead of outbidding each other, you’re all trying to impress the landlord just enough to be picked.

It felt competitive, almost like a game show.

You walk around with other hopeful tenants, sizing each other up, knowing you’ve got maybe a few minutes to make an impression.

And yes — it’s every bit as awkward as it sounds.

4. Paperwork Is Serious Business

We needed:

• Passports and residence permits

• Proof of income (three months of pay slips)

• A SCHUFA credit check (Germany’s credit report)

• Sometimes even a letter from our employer confirming our contracts

Having these documents prepped early made the process smoother — but even then, we struggled to get responses from landlords when we first contacted them in English.

Once we switched to emailing in German (thanks to Google Translate) and confirmed with colleagues that this was the norm, the replies started coming.

We also had help from a relocation company, but even they had trouble.

We ended up escalating to higher management to secure a viewing for the apartment we’re in now.

Without that, we probably wouldn’t be living here today.

5. Square Meters vs. Square Feet

We kept converting every listing from m² to square feet in our heads — which made our 136 m² apartment sound small at first.

In reality, it’s larger than many two-bedroom condos back home.

Our advice: don’t judge the size until you see the layout.

6. No Built-In Storage

Our Novi apartment had three built-in closets (two in the master bedroom, one in the home office) plus two pantry closets for accessories and shoes.

Here? None.

We didn’t love the idea of wardrobes — they take up living space and make rooms feel smaller.

So Duygu had a brilliant idea: we converted our Abstellraum (storage room) into a walk-in closet using an inexpensive IKEA system.

Problem solved, without losing precious square meters.

7. Location Is Everything

We ended up in the Killesberg area, right next to Killesberg Park.

Our main goal was to find a Neubau (new construction) that could fit our furniture and design plans — basically, to export our Novi home and import it here.

And a location that gets me to the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof in under 15 minutes to get to the high-speed trains to Ulm for work.

A year later, we’ve realized just how lucky we were. We’re within 25 minutes away by U-bahn to Porsche Arena, MHP Arena, and of course, the Killesberg park itself.

It’s quiet, green, and still connected to the rest of the city.

8. Timing Isn’t Always About Speed

For us, the challenge wasn’t apartments disappearing overnight — it was getting landlords to respond at all. Once we started emailing in German and had the relocation company escalate on our behalf, doors opened.

In a competitive city like Stuttgart, speed matters — but so does how you make first contact.

9. “Rooms” Don’t Mean the Same Thing

In North America, most people search for apartments by bedrooms and bathrooms — “two bed, two bath” is clear. In Germany, listings use the total number of rooms, and that count includes the living room.

When we first started searching, we made the mistake of filtering for “2 rooms,” thinking it meant two bedrooms. It didn’t. It meant one bedroom plus a living room — and not every “room” is meant to be a Schlafzimmer (bedroom).

In the end, because we wanted three actual bedrooms, we had to search for “4-room” apartments… which are ultra-rare in a city like Stuttgart.

Looking Back

Apartment hunting here was stressful and, at times, frustrating.

But it taught us a lot about how the housing market works in Germany — and it made us appreciate the home we ended up in even more.

The kitchen surprise was the biggest shock — but it wasn’t the only concept that made us stop and say, “Wait… what?”

Right after we wrapped our heads around designing a kitchen from scratch, we had to learn how rent works here — specifically the difference between Kaltmiete (cold rent) and Warmmiete (warm rent).

It’s a small detail on paper, but it completely changes how you budget for life in Germany.

That’s exactly what we’ll break down in the next post.