{"id":3381,"date":"2012-01-11T18:28:34","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T18:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=3381"},"modified":"2017-11-14T14:47:32","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T14:47:32","slug":"wohnen-in-deutschland-housing-in-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wohnen-in-deutschland-housing-in-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Wohnen in Deutschland – Housing in Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

I grew up in a\u00a0Einfamilienhaus<\/em> (one family house). And the one I grew up in was surrounded mostly by one family homes. My grandparents had their own Haus<\/em> (house), and so did the families of my friends in the neighbourhood. As of 2008, one third of households in Germany is living in one family homes, and 12% in Doppelh\u00e4usern<\/em> (semi-detached houses).<\/p>\n

When I was about five I visited some relatives. And their place was weird, because when you entered the house, there was just a cold staircase and two doors on each landing. At first, everyone went into the door to the left. But I have always liked to explore places, so I decided to also wander past the open door to the right. I was quite confused when I met people there that I didn’t know and my parents told me to get back into my relatives’ Wohnung<\/em> (apartment). So that is what an Mehrfamilienhaus<\/em> (apartment house) is like! More than half the households in Germany (53.3%) live in apartments. And while most of the one family houses are owned by the people that live in them, most of the apartments are being rented.<\/p>\n

When I moved out of my parents’ house to study in far-away Potsdam, I moved into a WG<\/em> (short for Wohngemeinschaft<\/em>, which means\u00a0 apartment share). I would say that this is the most common way to live for students. Some students continue to live with their parents, some move into Studentenwohnheime<\/em> (student housing), and others rent their own place.<\/p>\n

And although I’m close to finishing my studies, I do not plan einen Kredit aufzunehmen<\/em> (to take out a loan) to buy a house or Eigentumswohnung<\/em> (condominium) any time soon. And I’m not alone in that. Actually, renting is the most common thing to do when assuring oneself a place to live in Germany. The number of people who own the place where they live has been growing slightly over the past years, reaching the stunning mark of 43.2% of households in 2008. Compared to the 2009 Eurostat statistics (see picture below), this puts Germany on the last place – far behind second-to-last Austria at 57.5%.
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\nNow I’d be curious to hear about your experiences with and opinions on housing! Please feel free to comment – click the speech balloon below the title of this post!<\/p>\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n