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Abstract:
Heating systems and measuring devices differ in Germany from those in other countries. Consumption determination sometimes leads to misunderstandings.
Based on experience from COS and official statistical data „Mietspiegel“ of 2018, the Stuttgart house and flat situation is like:
-Concerning real estate costs, there is a big gap between reality and expectation by non-local people (they expect high rates for big famous cities, but not for a globally unknown town, however in case of Stuttgart the opposite is true)
-comparable to Silicon Valley, since last century, Stuttgart attracts the most innovative companies and talented people, resulting in enormous real estate costs and the highest yearly increases of rent prices in whole Europe
-the costs published in newspapers differ from reality. Reason is the German law “Mietpreisbremse”, which is a political measurement to limit this dramatic cost explosion. However the numbers written in contract differ from published information. So there’s a difference between “official price” and “real price”
-about 50.000 flats are missing in metropolitan area Stuttgart, leading to a bull market resulting in petrified applicants
-for buying a new flat, costs between 6.100€/m2 (normal) up to 15.000€/m2 (luxury) are to be expected
-rents in buildings later October 2014 (exception “Mietpreisbremse”) are between 17€/m2 and 20€/m2, plus additional 2-3€/m2 for variable cost
-there’s an extreme competition on market for applicants. About 200 people apply for an attractive flat per week. So the chance to get one, is very low. Depending on costs it could last very long, especially if you haven’t got private connections to get a flat. In average you need between 6 and 9 months to success.
-by increasing the distance to Stuttgart to regions like e.g. Aichtal, Waldenbuch, Remstal, Strohgäu, Neckarteilfingen, etc. costs can be decreased
-However the infrastructure for public transit is very bad outside of Stuttgart. Therefore people go by car to daily work. Consequence is that there are every day crazy traffic jams
-this aspects are the reasons, why Stuttgart is the city with most traffic jams in Germany.
COS Services Stuttgart is your relocation and real estate specialist having deepest local knowledge and experiences for decades. As local “Swabian” we can realize results, other relocation and real estate services can’t do.
How to avoid high vehicle depreciation? 10 valuable tips against a rude awakening
"I bought the car three years ago for 19,000 Euros as a used car, since then my wife has only driven 5,000 km with it. Today it's not even worth 8,000 Euros. How is that possible?"
This article from May 2019 is intended to give us an overview of the car market in Germany and thus help us make the right decision when buying a car.
This article is in particular intended to help expatriates to use a vehicle for themselves or their spouse for 2 to 3 years and to use it for shopping, picking up children from school and making short excursions.
Fundamentally, our recommendation from COS is that it is better to buy a well-maintained used car than to lease a new car at comparatively high costs.
This gives you the opportunity to drive a better-equipped, more valuable vehicle, while saving money at the same time.
The pre-requisite, however, is that you achieve a good resale price.
How this is done is explained here in this article.
