Financing your own flat or a room in a shared flat during your studies is a major challenge for many young people. "Wohnen für Hilfe" offers many advantages here!

Brief overview

Advantages of a housing partnership
The path to a housing partnership
Housing exchange
Contact

Advantages of a housing partnership

Affordable living: In a shared flat, you only pay the utilities. In return for living space, you offer your help with everyday tasks such as shopping, gardening, etc. As a rule of thumb: one hour of help per month per square metre of living space. For a room of 12 square metres, this would correspond to 12 hours of help per month or 3 hours per week.
More focus on your studies: Thanks to the favourable housing costs, you may be able to do without a part-time job or at least reduce your working hours. This gives you more time for your studies and also saves you travelling to and from work.
Flexible scheduling: You can flexibly determine when you fulfil your tasks as part of the housing partnership in consultation with your housing partner. For example, you can concentrate more on studying during the examination phase and help out more during the semester break.
Familiar environment: In a flat-sharing partnership, you gain insights into living environments that may differ from your own. This can be enriching. After moving to a new city, a flatmate can also offer you support and orientation in your new surroundings.

The path to a housing partnership

1. Self-check

Think about whether "Wohnen für Hilfe" is right for you. You should be able to answer "yes" to the following points:

Wohnen für Hilfe is not a temporary solution for me until I have found another flat.
Housing providers are interested in continuity and want a housing partnership that doesn't just last a few weeks or months. So be honest with yourself and others about your plans and only apply if you want to commit to the project for at least two semesters.
I am prepared to support my flatmate regularly and reliably in everyday life.
Just like a rent payment, your help must be reliable and predictable for the flatmate.
I have thought about which tasks I can and would like to help with.
Be realistic when assessing your skills. Only offer assistance with tasks that you are confident in, especially when it comes to handling tools/machines.

2. Application

Fill out the application form and send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Application form for students (PDF) (DE)

3. Preliminary interview

Once we have received your application form, we from the "Wohnen für Hilfe" team will conduct a personal interview with you. We will get to know you better and discuss what support services you can offer. We will also clarify what you expect from a housing partnership. We will then start the placement process and look for suitable housing providers for you.

4. Introductory meeting with the housing provider

Once we have found a potential accommodation provider for you, we will organise an initial introductory meeting.
Before the introductory meeting, think about what you want to discuss. The clearer your ideas about the flat-sharing partnership are, the better you can coordinate with your flat-sharing partner in advance. The success of a flat-sharing partnership depends largely on this. Consider these topics in particular:

Support services: Clearly formulate what support you can offer in everyday life and how much time you have available for this.
Expectations: Discuss what you expect from the flat-sharing partnership and living together.
Attendance: Inform your flatmate about longer or regular absences, for example during the semester break or at weekends.
Utilities: Agree on how you want to regulate the amount and billing of utilities. A flat rate is often a good option. A clear agreement in advance prevents nasty surprises afterwards.
Internet: Find out whether internet access is available and whether you can use it.

5. Trial living

If the chemistry is right at the introductory meeting, nothing stands in the way of a trial apartment. Here you can test whether the housing partnership feels right for you. You can arrange how long you'd like to stay for the trial apartment.

6. Signing the contract

If everything went smoothly during the trial living, you are ready for the final step on the way to ‘Living for Help’: You sign a housing transfer agreement with the landlord, which forms the basis for living together. The agreements you make in this contract are generally up to the two parties.

Housing exchange

You can find all current housing offers from "Wohnen für Hilfe" in our housing exchange. But even if there is no suitable advert at the moment, you can send us the application form at any time.