I live in the beautiful little town of Heidelberg on the Neckar River in Germany. A student stronghold, and I love this city, even though paying for student housing is not easy. For us students it is a true paradise in the evening. Lots of student pubs and lovely old alleys. Rents have risen sharply in recent years, as everywhere.

My friend Marie studies law like me, and so we were able to rent an apartment together. Even so, it is really expensive when you want to pay for student housing:

  • expensive rent
  • high utility costs
  • electricity
  • gas

These are points that really drain our energy. We work in a home decor store, and we have to put in quite a lot of hours for it.

Paying for student housing when it comes to rent

We have already considered whether we should look somewhere nearby, e.g. St. Leon-Rot, Walldorf or more toward Mannheim. But everything has simply become expensive, and putting up with long commutes to the university every morning doesn't help either. On top of that, the parking situation isn't easy either. It just doesn't pay off. It is better to look for another job instead.

We are thinking about whether we should do online copywriting. There are a few platforms where we could work, and we wouldn't have to leave the house. We want to look into it this weekend. A friend of ours has had pretty good experiences with it and earns about 250 euros extra per month. If we multiply that by two, it would be quite good for our household and rent fund, so that we can keep paying for student housing.

We split the grocery costs in half. Each of us shops and cooks once. We can't afford to watch every cent here, but we still think it's a good thing for both of us.

Paying for student housing

Paying for student housing, and yet there are always ways

So far we have managed the first ten months quite well and are optimistic that we can keep paying for student housing. We are of course aware that the landlord can raise the rent every three years, and we simply hope it won't be the full 20 % that is legally possible.

As law students we know what is allowed and what isn't. We both find tenancy law an exciting topic and are sure there would be a good market for it for us in the future. A lot gets fought out in court.

My father said 15 years ago that rents would become a big problem in the future. He was right. Many disputes arise from it. Landlords don't want to take care of repairs, and so on. We hear from others here in the city about the difficult situations that sometimes arise. We hope for the best for ourselves when it comes to paying for student housing!