As alumni of the Hertie School, you might remember the excitement and stress associated with moving to Berlin and starting your first semester at Hertie. One of the biggest challenges to this fresh start is simply finding housing in Berlin, especially if you are new to the city. With the ongoing housing crisis, no local contacts or knowledge of the market, finding affordable and secure housing becomes virtually impossible for our first year students.
You, as an alum can help. Read on to find out how.
How can you help?
Do you know someone in your church group or sports club who is working abroad for a semester and wants to rent their studio? A friend whose kids have moved out and gone off to university? A family member with a spare guest room? Get in touch with them and tell them about the programme.
What kinds of apartments and rooms are we looking for?
Flats, studios, or spare rooms available as living space for incoming first-year students of the Hertie School. Here’s more details:
- Furnished or unfurnished.
- Low (<500 EUR) or medium-cost (500-700 EUR) options.
- City registration of the apartment / room (Anmeldung) is required, students must be able to be officially registered under the address rented. For non-EU students in particular, this registration is one of the requirements to be able to apply for a residence permit.
- Minimum length of rental not less than six months. Ideally, we look for housing options that last at least one year.
- As an option, many Hertie students are open to negotiating a small contractually regulated rent reduction in exchange for tasks such as gardening, shopping, language instruction, or childcare. This is up to the landlord to negotiate with the student, and we as the Hertie School bear no legal responsibility for arrangements such as these.
How does it work?
You submit an available flat: Once you’ve talked to a potential landlord or if you have yourself an available room or flat, reach out to us via alumnirelations[at]hertie-school[dot]org with details such as the location, size, rent, and contact information.
We review the offer and share it with students: Upon receipt of an offer, a member of our staff will acknowledge it with an email, confirming the next steps to you/the potential landlord. If the offer meets our affordability criteria, we will upload the anonymised details of the property onto a Moodle page exclusively for admitted first year students. To ensure that potential landlords are not bombarded with messages, we will only share the landlord’s contact information with the first three students to message us and meet the specified rental criteria.
Viewings and matching: With just three flat viewings to host, it will be easy to pick the most suitable flat mate or renter! From this point on, the Hertie School will not act as a mediator in this process, but we can provide some sample leasing contracts for the landlord to use as a template.
What’s in it for you
Hertie Homes: Zimmer für die Zukunft Programme is a unique chance for Hertie School alumni in Berlin to support incoming students in a tangible and meaningful way. It’s also a chance to promote the values of the Hertie community of intercultural understanding and openness within your broader network.
