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How do you assess our chances on a flat?
I want to move in with my better half in the middle of next year. So about a year from now. I have heard from many you should start looking a long time before you plan to actually reside in your own four walls and that the changes are very slim to find a affordable flat.
I am currently as I said writing my thesis but already in midst of my master studies. I work part time 20h a week at a global automotive company. I make roughly 1100€ as a working student. It is not the best but I guess it's also not the worst. I've experienced people making a lot more. I also am getting Halbwaisenrente as my father died a couple of years ago. That is about 130€. My mother gets 250€ Kindergeld for me. I also basically get no Bafög. As far as I know you also get 360€ support from the state in form of Bafög additions.
My finance is doing an Ausbildung and will also finish it around June of next year and plans to work right following it as a ergotherapist.
I don't want to bother her with this and want to start looking myself. How are my chances and what would be appropriate time for start looking? As people told me too early could result in you paying rent while you are not living in the flat.
Thank you for any input?
honestly you'll be fine if you're realistic about what you're looking for. with 1100€ plus the extra support you're prob around 1500-1600 netto, which is enough for a 2-room flat in Neukölln or Wedding if you don't go crazy with the rent.
the key is having your paperwork ready before you even start viewing. get your Schufa, Mietschuldenfreiheitsbescheinigung from your current landlord, and your payslips sorted now. landlords here move fast and the good places get taken within 24 hours of listing.
one thing people forget is that WBS (Wohnberechtigungsschein) can be a game changer if your combined income qualifies. with your income and your partner's soon-to-be ergotherapist salary you might just scrape into it, and that opens up a lot of subsidized flats that have way less competition.
start looking seriously about 2-3 months before you want to move in. anything earlier and you're right, you'll end up double-paying rent or losing deposits. use Immoscout Premium and set up alerts, also check WG-Gesucht for private landlords who are less bureaucratic.
the timeline thing is real but you've got an advantage most people don't - you're not in a rush. a year out means you can watch the market without pressure. start casually browsing immoscout now just to see what 600-700€ warm gets you in different areas, you'll spot patterns fast.
for your income situation, the 360€ bafög addition only applies if you actually get bafög approval, not everyone qualifies automatically so check that before budgeting. your partner's ergotherapist salary will help a lot when she starts, those jobs pay decently in berlin.
one thing nobody mentioned - temp contracts for student jobs can spook some landlords. if yours is limited, get a letter from hr confirming it's been extended or will be. also check if your automotive company has a relocation service, big firms sometimes help employees find housing even for student workers.
yeah a year out is totally fine, just start poking around immoscout and ebay kleinanzeigen now to get a feel for prices. the real trick is having all your documents in a pdf ready to go before you even message anyone - landlords here will ghost you if you take more than a few hours to reply. also check if your uni has a housing office, some of them hook students up with cheaper flats through stw berlin
What is the correct spelling for a street name that appears differently on multiple signs in Charlottenburg?
Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.
if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point
honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.
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