If you’ve decided to live in Germany, whether you’re just beginning your adventure or you’re about to move to Germany soon, one of the most important things on your mind will be your living costs per month in Germany. Let’s start with our article Cost Of Living In Germany For 2024: All You Need To Know!
Cost Of Living In Germany 2024: All You Need To Know
In this article, we explain the housing, health insurance, furniture, education, German course, public transportation, car, grocery and restaurant expenses in Germany.
Housing Expenses in Germany
One of the most challenging aspects of starting a new life in any country will be finding an accommodation. Finding an accommodation will be difficult, and it will also constitute a significant portion of your monthly expenses in Germany.
Almost half of your monthly expenses will go towards housing. Your marital status, number of children if you have, the city and type of apartment will definitely influence the payment amount. If you couldn’t find an accommodation, you can read our article How to Find Accommodation in Germany.
Rent
There are two different terms for rent in Germany. The net rent you pay for a house in Germany is defined as Kaltmiete. In addition to the net rent, adding costs of hot water, utilities, and heating is also referred to as Warmmiete. You can check our article How to Find Accommodation in Germany for further details.
Depending on the city, location and size of the apartment, you can find a studio apartment for single-person with the net rent (Kaltmiete) ranging from for EUR 300 to EUR 700 monthly. Two- or three-room apartments will range from EUR 700 to EUR 1400 per month. Depending on the city and age of an apartment, the square meter price of an apartment rent can vary from EUR 8 to EUR 30.
Rent in Germany should be paid at the beginning of the month. So you should have approximately EUR 1000 in cash for your first rent, when you arrive in Germany.
| Location | Munich | Berlin | Stuttgart | Dresden | Hamburg | Cologne |
| Studio apartment near city center | 1300€ | 1060€ | 1000€ | 510€ | 960€ | 840€ |
| Studio apartment away from city center | 1010€ | 770€ | 790€ | 440€ | 685€ | 650€ |
| 3-room apartment near city center | 2350€ | 2080€ | 1760€ | 1125€ | 1920€ | 1590€ |
| 3-room apartment away from city center | 1785€ | 1420€ | 1330€ | 840€ | 1380€ | 1130€ |
| A room in shared flat | 550€ | 500€ | 450€ | 250€ | 550€ | 390€ |
| Dormitory | 450€ | 400€ | 400€ | 300€ | 450€ | 350€ |
Bills
The size of the apartment and the family will also affect heating, electricity, and water bills. Utilities like heating, electricity, and water, if not included in your lease agreement, can be obtained from different companies. You can get quotes from different companies to find the most suitable subscription for you. At this point, I recommend basing the monthly consumption suggested by the company on the size of your family.
The real consumption are measured once a year in Germany. That’s why you will have to pay monthly fixed fees for these services based on an estimation. At the end of the year, when your consumption is determined, the company will send you the actual bill. If you have overpaid your consumption, you will receive a refund. If you have underpaid your consumption, you will need to pay the difference.
The internet bill varies depending on the internet package. We are very satisfied with our existing package from Vodafone, paying EUR 44.99 monthly for 1000 MBit/s. By becoming a member through Vodafone reference link, you can also support us without any additional cost.
In addition, my spouse and I pay EUR 55 monthly for electricity, EUR 45 for internet, EUR 35 for water. We also pay EUR 150 for heating through the central heating system. Moreover, we pay EUR 18 monthly for the radio tax. Radio tax is a bill that must be paid per household even though you don’t have any television at home.
Deposit
Landlords usually require 2 – 3 times the net rent as a deposit. This may be a bit difficult initially, and you may request to pay the deposit in 2 to 3 installments. However, to be on safe side, you should have approximately EUR 2500 to pay the deposit.
Kitchen Cabinets
One of the most absurd things we’ve seen in rental homes in Germany is the lack of kitchen cabinets. In such cases, the tenants install kitchen cabinets themselves. If you rent an apartment without kitchen cabinets, you may need to pay around EUR 3000 – EUR 4000 at once for the appliances and kitchen cabinets. Therefore, we recommend looking for apartments with kitchens when searching for an accommodation.
Health Insurance Expense
If you need health insurance as a student, you can apply for a state health insurance from any insurance company. It will cost around EUR 100 monthly.
If you get the health insurance as an employee, around %7 – %8 of your salary will be deducted for it. Even though you may not actively pay from your pocket, your gross salary will decrease with these deductions. You can check and compare the best options for the health insurance on check24.de.
Furniture Expense
If you don’t have furniture or won’t bring them to Germany, you’ll need to buy some furniture when you first move. By keeping the amount of furniture to a minimum, you’ll need essential items like a bed, a table, a wardrobe, a sofa, a chair, etc., for a single-room student apartment. If you buy these from Ikea, you’ll pay around EUR 1000 – EUR 1500 depending on the quality and style of your furniture.
Once you have a three-room apartment for your family, the furniture costs will naturally increase. You’ll need a larger bed, a dining table, larger wardrobes, carpets, more chairs, etc. In this case, the furniture expense for a two-person family will exceed EUR 4000.
Education Expense
The quality of education in Germany is high compared to many countries. Higher education in Germany is one of the fastest ways to integrate into the culture here. Education in the state schools is free for citizens and residents of Germany. However, besides the university tuition fees in Germany, there are also monthly expenses for education. These costs vary from state to state but average around EUR 5000 per year.
While university education is free for citizens and residents of Germany, in recent years, it has become fee-based for foreign students. The university fee for international students is EUR 1500 per semester in the state of Baden Württemberg. Similarly, in the state of Bavaria, the semester fee for new registered foreign students will be EUR 6000 starting from the winter semester of 2024.
German Course Expense
When you come to Germany, if you don’t speak German, daily life may be a bit challenging at first. Especially, if you don’t speak German when you go to government agencies and can’t find an English-speaking official, you should go with someone who speaks German. Otherwise, dealing with government agencies may not be very easy. We also recommend learning German as soon as possible to integrate into the life in Germany. So you would also need to consider German course in your cost of living in Germany.
Depending on the type and level of the course, the cost of the course will range from EUR 300 to EUR 1500. Intensive courses with 4 – 8 students and lasting 4 – 5 days a week will have higher course fees than other courses. You can check the course fees and course dates for the following courses from the links provided below.
Public Transportation
If you will be commuting to work or the city center by public transportation every day, it makes sense to get a monthly ticket for the city. You should check how many zones you will travel with the public transportation and their prices. Prices increase with the number of zones and vary from city to city. Monthly tickets for all zones in major cities like Stuttgart and Munich are around EUR 180, but tickets for 2 – 3 zones can be purchased for EUR 60 – EUR 70.
Private Car
Although we bought our car in 2021, we are still paying off its loan, so it also has a monthly expense for us. If you also buy a car with a loan like us, you will need to make a monthly payment for the loan, which may require allocating around EUR 500. In addition, EUR 150 may be a reasonable amount for comprehensive insurance and liability insurance. In addition, you may need to allocate EUR 40 monthly for maintenance. Of course, on top of these, there will be fuel expenses and parking fees, for which you may need to pay EUR 200.
Grocery Expense: Cost of Living in Germany
The amount we pay monthly for grocery expense is around EUR 750. If you spend carefully, you can reduce the grocery expenses to EUR 500 for a two-person family.
Restaurant Expense
You can expect to pay between EUR 30 – EUR 50 per person for dinner (including alcoholic beverages) at a standard restaurant in the city center. However, you can also find cheaper options such as pizza for EUR 12 – EUR 20 per person or döner for EUR 5 – EUR 10.
Additionally, if you are a student, you can eat at the university canteen, which can range from EUR 3 to EUR 6 depending on the meal you choose. If you generally eat out, your grocery expenses will decrease, however your restaurant expenses will be higher. Having dinner out once or twice a week can cost you around EUR 300 – EUR 400 per month.
You can find the summary of cost of living in Germany at below table for a student and for a family of 2.
| Expenses | Student | Family of 2 |
| Rent | €450 | €1200 |
| Bills | €160 | €240 |
| Health Insurance | €100 | 0 |
| Public Transportation | 0 or €60 | €80 |
| Private Car | 0 | €700 |
| Grocery Expenses | €300 | €750 |
| Restaurants | €200 | €300 |
| Monthly Total | €1270 | €3270 |
| Deposit | €1350 | €3600 |
| Mutfak Dolabı | 0 | €5000 |
| Furniture | €1500 | €4800 |
| German Course | €600 | €2300 |
| Initial Cost | €3450 | €15700 |
Thus, we have come to the end of our article on Cost of Living in Germany 2024: All You Need To Know. As you can see on above table, almost fifty percent of the cost of living in Germany is rent and bills. We hope you have found answers to your questions regarding the cost of living in Germany for 2024. If you have further questions, you can leave a comment below.
Also read: How to Get Jobseeker Visa for Germany, Bachelor Study in Germany, Tax System in Germany, How to Find a Job in Germany
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