ImmobilienScout24* (or short: ImmoScout), is one of the largest real estate platform in Germany, both for buying and renting apartments and houses. Here I give an English walkthrough with screenshots for its basic functions.
The examples are taken from Berlin but any of this should also work for a flat search in Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart, Leipzig etc.
Contents:
- How to search for an apartment
- How to create a free account
- How to save searches and get notified per email
First of all: While the ImmoScout website* is available only on German, there is both an Android and iPhone app available in English. So you can get the app – of follow this guide if you prefers to search with your desktop computer.
1. Look around
Furnished flats / temporary rentals
Although it is less common in Germany, there are also some offers of apartments including furniture. As such rental contracts are usually shorter, Immobilienscout calls this search Wohnen auf Zeit (temporary accommodation)*.
Let’s look at the form:
Note that we do not fill out all the fields, a location / area is enough.
Unfurnished flats / unlimited rentals
More typical (and usually also cheaper) is to rent apartments without furniture for an unlimited rental term* (= usually 3 months cancellation period). The form looks similar, here you can also set a minimum size of the flat:
Filter results
After we’ve clicked on Suchen (Search), we get a list of available offers. We can filter and adjust this view, especially convenient might be the map view:
Contact landlord
We can click on any results and see the detailed description of a flat. On the right side of the main photo we can contact the landlord:
2. Create your free account
In case you didn’t find our ideal place right now and want to
- search later again for new offers matching our criteria
- setup a email alerts to get notified about new matching offers
you can create a personal account for free*. Immoscout will try to upsell your a few times to a paid option but I show you how to stay free in case you want so.
In the upper main navigation menu, click on Anmelden / Mein Konto:
Enter our email address and a new password, and Immoscout will send you an email for confirmation. Right after confirming, they will try to upsell you to a paid premium account. If you don’t need this right now, simply skip by clicking on Auf Premium-Vorteile verzichten:
Immoscout now offers you also to create a profile about yourself that you can then publish and let landlords contact you. You can also skip that, if you prefer to search right now on your own:
At the end, Immoscout will again try to upsell you, but that Schufa report you can get for free. So if you don’t need it right now, simply click on the X in the upper right corner:
3. Save searches and get notified per email
The last step: You now want to set up notifications for new offers matching your search. This way, you will immediately receive a notification when a landlord puts a new ad online that fits your criteria. Then you can contact them quickly and be in front of the queue.
To do that, select Gespeicherte Suchen (Saved searches) from the menu on the left. In case you already did a search, an option Letzte Suche speichern will appear and allow you to create a notification out of this last search.
And done! You can now adjust the way you receive your notifications. If you are fine with the current setting, simply click the X in the upper right corner. If you change something, save the changes with Änderungen speichern at the bottom:
Now good luck with your search! Here are all relevant links again in one place:
Search temporary / furnished flats*
Search unlimited / unfurnished flats*
Links marked with a star (*) are affiliate links. If you click on such a link and then shop or order something, we will receive a commission for your purchase with which we can cover our expenses and keep the site free of ads. This does not change the price for you.
