We are pioneers for temporary housing in Hamburg. We started in 1987 and are very proud to have brought our very "alternative” idea into the main stream world of “serious business.”
We are pioneers for temporary housing in Hamburg. We started in 1987 and are very proud to have brought our very "alternative” idea into the main stream world of “serious business.”
Indeed... we are the approachable agency with the personal touch and not an anonymous, algorithm-controlled housing platform. We are directly on site in Hamburg, know the city and love it. Our experienced teams take care of all those who are interested in interim furnished apartments, whether you want to let yours or need to find one. We stand for optimal, secure and personal service with high quality standards. We do this with pleasure: Teamwork!
We are interested in the people behind each assignment.
Our roots go back to the 80’s when temporary living was still an insider tip and digitalization a foreign word. City-Wohnen has been one of the largest agencies for temporary living in Hamburg since 1987. Our agency is specialized in the marketing and brokerage of furnished apartments in Hamburg. Our clientele is both national and international.
As an agency, we have high service standards and would like to support you in all aspects of temporary living. In doing so, individuality, care and professionalism are of particular importance to us.
We have been a Green Planet Energy (formerly Greenpeace) cooperative member since 2000 and a long-standing supporting member of Greenpeace. Beyond that, we also focus on sustainability in our work. For example, we work paperless as far as possible and even our rental agreements are now signed via DocuSign. This not only saves a lot of time but also a lot of paper. A win-win situation!
Flexibility and mobility are writ large in our society. The professional world is fast moving, mobile and international. This goes hand in hand with flexibility in terms of where we live - including frequent changes of residence. Furnished temporary living offers the ideal solution for this. City-Wohnen supports people searching for a new temporary home and provides safe start-up assistance in a new city.
With almost two million inhabitants, Hamburg is one of the largest cities in Germany and has a high number of large companies, media centers, universities and research institutes. Hamburg is also home to Germany's largest seaport.
Hamburg is global and international; there is movement here. Temporary furnished apartments remain consistently high in demand.
City-Wohnen brokers furnished apartments in Hamburg. Renting or letting is possible from a minimum period of three months up to an unlimited period. All apartments are fully equipped and usually have internet access. Strict rules apply in Hamburg with regard to the misappropriation of residential space. We do not offer holiday flats or tourist accommodation.
We take care of everything. The City-Wohnen photographers personally photograph all apartments. Our agency prepares all exposés and floor plans with great care. We take care of the complete organization, from marketing and consulting to the bilingual rental contract.
Companies search far and wide for skilled workers. Our company service team will take care of the first accommodation.
By creating a secure and well-structured market for furnished apartments, we offer optimal support for companies that want to recruit new employees. The minimum rental period is generally three months. Our corporate clients can speak directly to a team member specialized in working with companies. Read here about our companyservices.
To ensure that everything runs smoothly for you, our agency team members work hand in hand and collaborate cross-team as far as possible. We attach great importance to a flexible, agile and personal way of working to get results as quickly as possible.
Once a start-up in the 80’s, today we are experts for temporary living in Hamburg. It is hard to imagine that we were able to found our agency without fax, e-mail or internet. Working from a basement office, we helped people find roommates for shared apartments: by students for students. In the nineties, the internet made it possible for people around the world to find a temporary home away from home in Hamburg.
Everything started with the motto "Live and Let Live."
In 1987, Frederick Wencke and Ingrid Markusse started their agency for temporary accommodation. Its initial name was “Die Mitwohnzentrale.” Highly motivated, no start-up capital, and a small team. Most of those team members were - what else - students. Some employees from the very beginning are still with us today. They are now in responsible positions as senior consultants for our corporate clients.
The students from the eighties grew up quickly. As the students became professionals, the student rooms were replaced by fully furnished apartments. Companies and professionals liked our concept as it was the perfect, cost-effective alternative to a hotel or boarding house. They especially liked the individual ambience you get when you rent a "home away from home".
Today it is unimaginable that we ever worked or communicated without computers, the internet, or e-mails. When we started in the '80s, we actually used a Commodore 64, but we also used good old-fashioned index cards. You just couldn’t be sure if you could really rely on a computer... Letters still had to be typewritten (and corrected with a lot of whiteout)!
In the late 90s we stopped offering rooms in order to specialize in furnished apartments. The term "Mitwohnzentrale" no longer fit and was replaced by “agency for interim apartments.” We now call ourselves Wencke und Partner. The term "Wohnen auf Zeit" (interim housing) is now an industry term.
Major changes are pending. Together with one of the oldest Berlin agencies for temporary living, we found City-Wohnen Deutschland. From now on our name is City-Wohnen and we are represented in Hamburg and Berlin, although we remain independent agencies. Together we developed our website and high quality standards for brokering furnished apartments.
With combined energy, we tackle major issues such as the introduction of the new laws regulating fees in 2015. Whereas the lessees had paid our commission up to that point, now lessors must pay the service fees.
The term shareconomy sparked a wave of advertising platforms that focus on self-administration instead of service. We are convinced, however, that security, quality and individual service is what people are looking for and need when it comes to housing. This is what you still find at City-Wohnen Hamburg.
In 2019, our partner agency in Berlin sold its business to an equally highly qualified agency for temporary living: coming home.
Meanwhile, here in Hamburg our team has reached 20 employees. We are still fully committed to our work (and this is, how we look like: teamwork). There are still major issues to deal with: the right of withdrawal even for rental contracts, the new data protection regulations, energy passes, etc. We never get bored!