How to Rent Out an Apartment in Germany: The Full Process (2026)

Renting out an apartment in Germany follows the same path almost every time: set a lawful rent, prepare the documents, publish a clear listing, screen the applicants, and sign the lease. Take the steps in that order and you avoid the usual mistakes, an unlawful rent, a weak listing, and a choice made on gut feeling. This guide walks through the whole process.

Do you need an agent?

Not for most flats. Before 2015 a landlord could hire a Makler and let the tenant pay the commission; the Bestellerprinzip ended that, so whoever orders the agent now pays them. For an owner with one or two flats that is a hard expense to justify when listing yourself takes an afternoon. Doing it alone also keeps you in direct contact with applicants, which gives you a clearer read on who actually wants the flat. What you trade is time. If you would rather stay hands-off, an agent or a management service still has its place; otherwise, read on.

Step 1: Set a lawful rent

You cannot always set the rent freely. Where the Mietpreisbremse applies, a new tenancy may not exceed the local comparable rent from the Mietspiegel by more than 10%, with exceptions for new builds and comprehensively modernised flats. Even where the cap does not apply, the local Mietspiegel and what comparable flats nearby are asking are the right anchors: a rent well above the comparable figure is both open to challenge and slow to let, because it deters good applicants. In Berlin specifically, you can check the lawful figure with a Mietspiegel calculator before you set the price.

Step 2: Prepare the documents and the flat

Before the listing goes live you need a valid Energieausweis (energy certificate). Its figures are legally required in the listing itself, the energy source, construction year, energy demand or consumption, and efficiency class, and advertising without them can trigger a fine. Just as useful, though not mandatory, are a floor plan, the exact floor area, and good daylight photos; listings with bright, tidy photos and a floor plan draw noticeably more qualified enquiries. You only need the Wohnungsgeberbestätigung later, when the new tenant registers their address.

Step 3: Write the listing

A good listing is honest and complete. State the cold rent, the service charges and the deposit, the floor area, the number of rooms, the floor, the features such as kitchen and balcony and heating type, and the earliest move-in date. The more precise the detail, the fewer unsuitable enquiries you handle. Put the same listing on more than one platform to widen your reach; you write it once and copy it across. On Domily you can list the apartment and manage applications in one place rather than juggling several listing sites and your inbox.

Step 4: Screen the applicants

This is the step that matters most. A sought-after flat draws thirty to fifty applications fast, so decide on documents, not impressions. Ask for the self-disclosure form (Selbstauskunft), proof of income, usually the last three payslips, and a SCHUFA or credit report, then cross-check that the figures line up. The common benchmark is a net income of about three times the cold rent. The full method is in the guide to finding a good tenant, and the detail of reading a credit report in checking a tenant's creditworthiness. Keep to rental-relevant criteria: you may not reject on the basis of ethnicity, religion, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation.

Step 5: The contract and handover

Once you have chosen, the lease and handover follow. The rental contract should set out the cold rent, the service-charge advance, the deposit (at most three months' cold rent, held separately in an interest-bearing account), notice periods, and any repair clauses in their fair form. At move-in, record the condition of the flat and every meter reading in a handover protocol; that document is your protection when the deposit is settled at the end of the tenancy.

The short version

Price against the Mietspiegel, get the energy certificate and photos ready, write a detailed and honest listing, screen on documents rather than gut feeling, and put the contract and handover in writing. Done in that order, letting a flat in Germany without an agent is straightforward, and it keeps both the commission and the choice of tenant in your hands.