What makes the German model different?
Many homeshare schemes in English-speaking countries match people through a single national charity. Germany has no such umbrella operator. Each university town runs its own matching office, usually attached to the local Studierendenwerk, a university faculty, a welfare charity or the municipal office for older residents.
The other distinctive feature is the barter formula. Instead of a reduced rent negotiated case by case, most German offices apply a fixed benchmark that converts floor space into hours of help. That makes expectations easier to compare across cities.
Square metres turned into hours
The Deutsches Studierendenwerk and the City of Cologne both quote the same yardstick: one hour of help per month for each square metre of living space. A 15 m² room therefore means around fifteen hours a month, or roughly half an hour a day.
Students usually still cover running costs such as electricity, water and gas. In Braunschweig, where a room is larger, part of the rent can be offset through hours and the remainder paid in cash, a hybrid that suits bigger flats.
Which tasks count, and which do not?
Shopping, gardening, cooking together, walks, reading the paper aloud or writing letters are typical. Nursing and medical care are excluded everywhere; the Braunschweig leaflet states explicitly that care tasks are ruled out. The student is a housemate who helps, never a carer.
Who takes part on each side?
Hosts were originally retirees, but Cologne now also accepts families with children, single parents, disabled people and older couples. Bamberg opened the scheme to adult apprentices as early as 2012, so participants are not always university students.
Which German cities run a scheme?
Counts differ by source and year. The official portal deutschland.de spoke of more than thirty cities linked through a national working group in 2017, while Stiftung Warentest listed 28 cities in October 2025. The Studierendenwerk network itself links to about a dozen local offices.
Those offices include Aachen, Düsseldorf, Freiburg, Hanover, Schleswig-Holstein, Karlsruhe, Koblenz, Lake Constance, Potsdam, Munich and Upper Bavaria, Marburg and Magdeburg. Ulm, Cologne, Bamberg and Braunschweig rely on other partners, from universities to Caritas.
| City or region | Who runs it | Useful fact |
|---|---|---|
| Cologne | University of Cologne, city-funded | Running since 2005 |
| Braunschweig | Studentenwerk OstNiedersachsen, ambet e.V., senior office | Sample tenancy contract available |
| Bamberg | City of Bamberg and Studentenwerk Würzburg | 28 pairings reported in 2012 |
| Bavaria | Local offices, state SeLA funding | Up to €40,000 start-up grant over two years |
Cologne: the long-running pioneer
Cologne's project started in 2005 in the university's Faculty of Human Sciences, with backing from the city's senior citizens' council. The city took over funding in 2009, and its housing department remains the administrative contact alongside the university project office.
Bavaria's start-up grants and their freeze
A written answer from the Bavarian government dated 1 July 2020 shows that the state funded matching offices from 2015 with up to €40,000 over two years. Gauting, Erlangen, Bayreuth, Würzburg, Freising and Munich-Neuhausen were among the supported sites.
Volumes were small: newer offices arranged at most five pairings a year, while the oldest reported about twenty and fifty a year in March 2019. Funding was then suspended because of unresolved tax questions, after a federal exemption was dropped from a bill in late 2019.
Why tax is the grey area
When a room is exchanged for labour, both sides receive something of value. Whether that counts as taxable income has never been settled by a dedicated federal rule. Anyone hosting in a large flat should ask a tax adviser before signing.
How much does it cost each side?
For the student, the bill is mostly utilities. Market comparisons explain the appeal: deutschland.de cited an average €634 a month for 30 m² in Munich back in 2017. For the host, the price is a shared kitchen and slightly higher energy use.
Matching is generally free. Both Cologne and Braunschweig say coordination costs nothing for either partner, and the Braunschweig office has been run free of charge by ambet since spring 2023, after earlier funding through the Studentenwerk ran out.
Renting hosts need their landlord's consent
Owners can take in a student freely. A host who rents must respect sections 540 and 553 of the German Civil Code: a third party may not use the flat without permission, but a tenant with a legitimate interest can claim permission to let part of it.
Applying step by step
Procedures differ by town, yet the following sequence appears in most of the offices reviewed for this guide, whether run by a university or by an association.
- Find the local office through the Studierendenwerk or the city's senior services.
- Complete the profile questionnaire as a host or as a student.
- Meet the coordinator, who often presents several candidates to the host.
- Arrange a visit to the room and a first conversation.
- Write down tasks, hours and the floor area used in the calculation.
- Sign a tenancy agreement directly between host and student.
Mistakes that end pairings early
Coordinators and press reports point to the same recurring problems. Most stem from vague promises at the start rather than from personality clashes later on.
- Letting hours creep well beyond the square-metre benchmark.
- Expecting personal care, which no programme allows.
- Skipping the landlord's written consent when the host is a tenant.
- Having no plan for a hospital stay or long absence of the host.
- Ignoring possible tax consequences of a large barter arrangement.
Do international students need fluent German?
No programme reviewed sets a formal language level, but daily life with an older housemate involves conversation, shopping lists and the occasional phone call to a doctor. Exchange students with basic German may find a closely supervised office more suitable.
Is a place easy to get?
Rarely. In Braunschweig, student demand outstrips available rooms, so hosts usually choose between several applicants. The Deutsches Studierendenwerk itself describes the scheme as a modest supplement that cannot replace the dormitory places Germany urgently needs.
How long does a pairing last?
Duration is set freely in the contract. A reader comment under the Stiftung Warentest article mentions two to three months' notice, which is not an official rule. Writing the term and notice period into the signed agreement avoids misunderstandings later.
Can an older person abroad host a student in Germany?
Only if the home is in Germany: the local office, the German Civil Code and German tax rules apply to the property, not to the nationality of the host. A French or British contract template has no legal force there.
Useful organisations and resources
- Deutsches Studierendenwerk – Wohnen für Hilfe — National federation of student services explaining the scheme, the square-metre rule and links to participating local offices.
- City of Cologne – Wohnen für Hilfe — City service page for the University of Cologne project, with contacts for the project office and municipal housing department.
- Braunschweig Wohnen für Hilfe leaflet — Leaflet from Studentenwerk OstNiedersachsen and partners listing permitted tasks, the care exclusion, a sample contract and contacts.
- University of Bamberg – city scheme report — University news item on the Bamberg partnership with Studentenwerk Würzburg, open to students and adult apprentices.
Official and legal references
- Bavarian State Parliament – printed paper 18/8935 — Official 2020 government answer on Wohnen für Hilfe in Bavaria: SeLA grants, funded towns, pairing volumes and the tax freeze.
- Berliner MieterGemeinschaft – subletting rules (BGB §§ 540, 553) — Tenants' association guide to landlord consent, legitimate interest and rent limits when letting part of a rented flat.