In general, the cost of an apartment or room depends on its location, size and the quality of the accommodation. Good residential areas in Magdeburg include the “Alte Neustadt” (home to the university’s main campus), “Altstadt”, “Stadtfeld”, “Leipziger Strasse” and “Werder” districts. In those quarters that are not so centrally located, the rents are often lower than in the centre. Please also note: Magdeburg is a relatively small city, which also has a good public transport system. It is therefore not absolutely essential to live in the city centre here - there is hardly anywhere in the city from where the journey into the city centre is longer than around 20 minutes by bus or tram.

Small furnished rooms for students start at around 230 EUR (for example student halls of residence or with Wobau). Rooms in private shared apartments can often be even cheaper.

Very small furnished apartments begin at around 300 EUR (e.g. Lorenzquartier). Somewhat larger apartments can be let from around 400-450 EUR. As we have already said, the prices largely depend on factors such as location, quality and size of the accommodation. In general, Magdeburg has very low rental costs in comparison with other German university towns.

As already described above (under “Paying the Rent”), there are two kinds of apartments available:

• fixed price apartments that already include all additional costs (e.g. water, heating, electricity), and
• rents that are split between the basic rent and additional costs, where you pay for your actual consumption. In this model, electricity is usually also charged for separately. This requires a contract with an external company.

Sample invoice for a small apartment

Below is an example for a small apartment with additional costs charged separately (basic rent plus costs). The example was found using one of the search portals already mentioned. It is a small apartment with 3 rooms offering 59 m² of living space.

Basic rent: EUR 310 | Additional costs: EUR 135 (including heating costs) | Total rent: EUR 445

In this example 445 euros must be paid to the landlord every month. It is important to note that there are still a few costs that are not included in this amount. These include:

• electricity (subject to consumption, usually around EUR 25-30 per person)
• broadcast media usage fees (currently EUR 17.50 per month, can be split between flatmates in shared apartments)
• telephone and Internet costs (starting from EUR 15-25, depending on connection speed)

The total extra costs detailed here are around EUR 57.50 to 72.50 per month.

 Overall in this example the monthly costs for an apartment are between EUR 502.50 and EUR 517.50. This example applies for an entire apartment in which two adults can live.