Warm rent in Germany: What are Nebenkosten?

What are Nebenkosten (service charges)? This is how the warm rent prices in Germany are composed.

Marle

2 minute read

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Updated on 5 Aug 2024

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Renting

Browsing through housing listings, you’ll come across 2types of rent prices in Germany: warm rent (Warmmiete) and basic rent (Kaltmiete). And upon second thought, it even stands to reason: Warm rent in Germany includes the Nebenkosten (service charges), so you're literally "in the warm".

So what are the services cost exactly? And which operating costs can be passed on to the tenant by the landlord? Let's dive in and find out!

First things first, let's clear up the confusion: what are Nebenkosten (service charges) anyway? And are the service charges included in the rent? To put it simply, service charges are all the costs incurred by the owner in owning and managing the property.

And that explains why you keep coming across 2 different rent prices in Germany when hunting for a place to live:

1. Basic rent (Kaltmiete): The net rent you pay for the "cold rooms". In other words: The rent without heating costs and other additional expenses.

2. Warm rent (Warmmiete): The "inclusive rent" or the rent including heating costs and running costs.

To give you a better idea of the rent prices in Germany, we'll delve deeper into the additional costs of the warm rent.

Landlord covers certain operating costs (Nebenkosten)

Some service charges fall on the shoulders of the landlord or owner and you can't be charged for them. These Nebenkosten include:

• Administrative costs
• Maintenance and repair costs
• Vacancy costs
• Account management fees or other bank charges
• Income tax on rental income
• One-off costs, e.g. for pest control

What additional costs shape the rent prices in Germany?

There are also some Nebenkosten that the landlord can charge you for and include them in your rent. Costs such as:

• Heating
• Water and sewage
• Property tax
• Lift
• Street cleaning and garbage collection
• House cleaning and pest control
• Garden maintenance
• Lighting (e.g. in the stairwell)
• Property and liability insurance
• Caretaker
• Chimney sweep
• Common laundry room

The landlord can also pass on other operating costs to the tenant, such as removing graffiti, as long as they are specified in the rental agreement.

It goes without saying that landlords have to include in the tenancy agreement all additional costs that you, as the tenant, are expected to pay and which therefore constitute the warm rent.

So if there's no corresponding clause in the tenancy agreement that obliges the tenant to bear the operating costs of the flat, the landlord has to pay these himself according to German tenancy law.

What's more, German law sets out in detail which operating costs may be passed on to tenants - and which may not. You can find an overview of the Operating Costs Ordinance (Betriebskostenverordnung).

According to survey based on prices in 2022, tenants paid an average of €6.40 per m² monthly in 2023 for operating costs. If you live in an 80m² apartment your monthly operational costs would be around €400.

But, there're significant regional and local price differences (e.g. in property tax, water/sanitation, waste disposal, heating and hot water costs). This is what you can expect your Nebenkosten to be (per square metre/month):

• Heating and hot water: €4.30
• Water/ sewage: €0.38
• Property tax: €0.18
• Caretaker: €0.34
• Property and liability insurance: €0.20
• Building cleaning: €0.18
• Lift: €0.18
• Waste disposal: €0.20
• Community aerial and cable television: €0.14
• Garden maintenance: €0.12
• General electricity: €0.06
• Street cleaning: €0.03
• Chimney cleaning: €0.04
• Other costs (e.g. costs for a swimming pool, sauna, gutter cleaning): €0.03

Upon the end of the year, your landlord has 12 months to send you a statement of utility costs, detailing all costs. With a bit of luck, you might even get some money back!

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