Accommodation hunting in Vienna

If you find yourself in the situation of having to move to Vienna in the next period and you are concerned about finding accommodation, or if you are just curious about how my experience was in this matter, than you should read this article.

As a very organized person that I am, I started researching the topic a few months before I had to move to Austria… from May if I remember well, so 3 months before. I can say this helped me in order to get to know the market and discover what my needs and wants are. However, I find it 99% impossible to rent something without being personally in Vienna because the chances to have a mismatch between the internet and even the phone perspective and the one of the reality are extremely high (basically, to be cheated). My experience stands as a proof that you can find a very good place to rent, according to your criteria (assuming they are realistic), without using a real estate agency, but rather your own work, knowledge and perseverance. Indeed, it is a competitive market, where the good places “go” almost instantly and you have to keep your eyes and ears constantly open to any opportunity and your mind aware of the wide range of possibilities. From my point of view, it is not worth paying the high commissions of the real estate agencies, which usually amounts to the rent for one to few months and/or a percentage of the contract value, when you can just invest some time and effort and find it yourself.

Whatever the solution you choose, to find a flat by your own or to use the help of a real estate agency, it is highly important that you visit the flats before renting. In my case, I came with two weeks earlier in Vienna and I stayed for some days in the flat of a friend of mine who was in Romania during that period. If you don’t have friends in Vienna, you might choose to stay in a hotel, aparthotel or hostel.

Going back in time and space, I tried to speak to as many people from Vienna as possible, to join Facebook groups for accommodation, FB groups of Romanians in Vienna (such as the one of the organization LSRS Austria for young Romanians abroad), I posted on my personal FB page, told my parents to ask their friends and acquaintances, talked to the university representatives and so on. The key point here is: get information from as many channels as possible! Someone might help you with a useful website, someone else might have a friend that rents his flat or a friend that might rent you the house while you visit flats… you never know where the opportunity pops out!

Therefore, I would like to give you some useful websites:

Ø  http://www.jobwohnen.at/  - this is the website where I found my place to rent. Really useful, offers are posted daily. It is only in German, but you can deal with it if you learn some key words and afterwards use Google Translate. It has offers only from private persons.

Ø  http://www.wg-gesucht.de/ - also an useful website. It has both a German and an English version, though some descriptions of offers might be only in German. It has offers only from private persons.

Ø  http://www.willhaben.at/iad - It is only in German.

Ø  http://www.bazar.at/ - It has offers from both private persons and real estate agencies.

Ø  http://www.provisionsfrei.at/ - It has offers only from private persons and it is in German. The drawback is that you have to pay in order to be able to contact the owner of the flat, otherwise you don’t see any contact information. Someone told me that he found his flat through this platform, so I decided to give it a try, but I found the offers quite little in number and new ones are posted rarely.

Other websites of real estate agencies indicated by some people are:

Ø  http://www.findmyhome.at/

Ø  http://www.immobilien.net/

Useful Facebook groups where people post about the flats or rooms they rent are:

- Wohnungen und Zimmer in Wien/ Rooms and Appartements in Vienna

- Wohnungen in Wien privat zur Vermietung

- Ich brauche bzw. habe eine Wohnung Wien

You have two big options if you are planning to move to Vienna: renting a room in a larger flat, known commonly here as WG, OR renting a flat, be it a studio or a larger apartment. For me, the best alternative was finding a studio. In the preparation phase, at home, you should also discover through your own research what are your required and preferred aspects about the accommodation you plan to find, such as the districts, the type of accommodation, the budget for rent and guarantee (known in German as “Kaution”), proximity to the transportation links or to university etc.

You should know that in 99% of the cases, when renting a room/studio/flat or anything else, you are required to give a guarantee (“Kaution” in German), which will be given back at the end of the contracting period, if the place is in the same good state. For larger flats, a transfer fee (“Ablȍse” in German) is also required for the furniture and everything contained inside. The guarantee is most of the times above 1000 Euros or equal to the value of the rent for 3 months, in the case of studios.

If you plan to live in Vienna at least for a year, I advise you to take into account both a short-term rent and a long-term rent for the beginning. Of course, the long-term is preferred, but in case you don’t find what you want in the required amount of time, than renting something for a month or two can give you extra time to find something convenient for the long term. You should also know that during the summer period, including September, a lot of people are still on holiday or abroad for other reasons, so your chances to find something on the short-term are higher.

In my case, I succeeded to find exactly what I wanted and the reason is probably a mix of various ingredients such as hard work, divine help, perseverance and luck.  About one week before coming here, I started giving many phone calls in order to establish appointments. Overall, I had 4 appointments before finding the flat that I wanted. You have also to be prepared for owners to call you and cancel the appointment because the flat has already been rented meantime, as it happened in two cases for me. The appointments themselves are the biggest adventure! One of the places had a horrible entrance of the building, another one was terrifying placed next to a night club with spices and the flat itself was very dirty, another one had the bathtub, believe it or not, in the kitchen, and another one was very dark, required a high guarantee and was available only starting September. As you may see, there is a great deal of things that you can’t foresee, so take your time and explore!

After all the work and the uncertainty, when I finally found this amazing studio, it was unbelievable. Now, it was all over! I can focus on other things! What I learned from this experience is that hard work pays off! You just have to research, research, research and never give up!

Good luck with your quest!