How HOWOGE lets its flats

In short

1. Request the flat on howoge.de: your name and email.
2. Confirm the email „Bitte bestätigen Sie Ihre Anmeldung“: tap its link within 24 hours. Only then is your request complete.
3. The draw. A lottery picks a few of the requests for a group viewing. If no invitation comes, you were not drawn: HOWOGE doesn't write to say no.
4. Book your viewing slot from the email „Einladung Terminbuchung“, in HOWOGE's portal, within 24 hours.
5. The viewing. Bring your ID.
6. Say you want the flat in HOWOGE's app. The email „Ihr Interesse …“ then asks for your household's details within 24 hours.
7. Upload your documents from the email „Erforderliche Unterlagen“, all at once, within 24 hours.

Sources: HOWOGE, letting process · HOWOGE's emails to an applicant, October and November 2026

When HOWOGE's flats go online

In the last 13 weeks, 799 of HOWOGE's flats went online on its own website, as FlatStrike saw them, in 287 different hours: 94% of them from Monday to Friday, the most on Thursdays (23%).

54% of those hours were between 10:00 and 16:00. Each hour counts once, however many flats went online in it. If you look for its flats yourself, look on weekdays between 10:00 and 16:00. These are past weeks, not a schedule of HOWOGE's.

Source: FlatStrike, when each of HOWOGE's flats first appeared on its website

1. The request

You ask for a viewing through the button on the flat's page at howoge.de. HOWOGE needs only your name and email address. The page then says that an email to confirm your details is on its way.

Use an email address you read every day: every later step comes by email, and most of them give you a day.

Sources: HOWOGE, letting process · HOWOGE's page after a request

2. The email link

Within minutes HOWOGE sends an email with the subject „Bitte bestätigen Sie Ihre Anmeldung“ (please confirm your registration). Tap „Anfrage bestätigen“ in it. The link lasts 24 hours.

Until you tap it, HOWOGE doesn't count your request as complete. After the tap a second email follows, „Anfrage zu Wohnungsangebot: …“ with the flat's address: it says your request arrived.

No email? Look in your spam folder.

Sources: HOWOGE's page after a request · HOWOGE's emails to an applicant, October and November 2026

3. The draw

HOWOGE often gets several hundred requests for one flat, so not everyone can see it. An automated lottery picks a few of them for a group viewing (Sammelbesichtigung). The number of places is small.

If you aren't drawn, HOWOGE doesn't write. HOWOGE's staff have no say in who is drawn, and HOWOGE answers no replies to its emails.

Each request is in its own flat's draw: the more flats you ask for, the more draws you are in.

Sources: HOWOGE, letting process · HOWOGE's emails to an applicant, October and November 2026

4. Booking the viewing

If you're drawn, the email „Einladung Terminbuchung“ offers you a slot. Sign in to HOWOGE's portal first, then confirm the slot through the email's link within 24 hours. If you don't, HOWOGE gives the slot to someone else.

Can't make it? Cancel in time, so the slot goes to another person.

Source: HOWOGE's emails to an applicant, October and November 2026

5. The viewing

Bring an ID card or passport. HOWOGE checks that the person at the viewing is the person who made the request.

A viewing slot can't be bought: HOWOGE doesn't let in anyone who paid for one.

Sources: HOWOGE, letting process · HOWOGE's emails to an applicant, October and November 2026

6. Saying you want the flat

If you still want the flat after the viewing, say so in HOWOGE's app. HOWOGE then sends „Ihr Interesse …“ and asks for your household's details within 24 hours: its size, its income and, for a flat that needs one, your WBS. Its system checks them by itself.

HOWOGE doesn't keep these details. For every other flat you want, it asks again.

Sources: HOWOGE, letting process · HOWOGE's emails to an applicant, October and November 2026

7. The documents

If you meet the requirements, the email „Erforderliche Unterlagen“ asks you to upload, within 24 hours, the documents HOWOGE's portal lists, such as proof of income and, for a flat that needs one, your WBS.

In the portal, save each document first; only when all of them are saved can you upload them together. HOWOGE only considers an application whose documents are complete.

If several applications meet the requirements, a lottery decides again, by what the applications say. If everything matches, you get a reservation and HOWOGE prepares the contract.

Have the documents ready as files before your first request: you won't have more than a day for them. What a landlord may ask for, and when, is in our guide Applying for a flat.

Sources: HOWOGE, letting process · HOWOGE's emails to an applicant, October and November 2026

Flats that need a WBS

For a flat that needs a WBS, enter it in HOWOGE's portal under „Meine Daten“, or the result of the Senate's WBS calculator if you have no certificate yet. Until then HOWOGE doesn't consider your request.

Not sure whether you'd get a WBS? Our WBS calculator works it out in a minute.

Sources: HOWOGE's emails to an applicant, October and November 2026 · Senate Department for Urban Development, WBS calculator

No money, no messengers

HOWOGE charges no commission and no fee for a viewing. An offer of money or gifts counts as bribery, and whoever makes one can't rent from HOWOGE for a year.

HOWOGE gets in touch only by email, by phone or through its app „HOWOGE Wohnungssuche“, never through WhatsApp or another messenger. Its flats are listed on howoge.de, in its app, on inberlinwohnen.de and on the large portals.

Sources: HOWOGE, letting process · HOWOGE, warning about fake offers

Questions people ask about HOWOGE

Does HOWOGE ask for a SCHUFA report?

No: HOWOGE obtains the credit report itself, from SCHUFA, just before it signs the tenancy agreement. If your credit isn't sufficient, especially for pupils, students and trainees, HOWOGE says a financially sound person should join the agreement, and it checks that person's credit too.

Do I need a WBS for a HOWOGE flat?

Only if the listing says „WBS erforderlich“ (WBS required). With „amtlicher WBS“ (official WBS) you need the certificate from the district office; with „Einkommensprüfung“ (income check, 100 to 140 or 141 to 220), proof of your income can be enough instead of a WBS. A flat listed „ohne WBS“ (without a WBS) needs neither a WBS nor an income check (more on this).

Do I need an account with HOWOGE?

Not for the request: HOWOGE needs only your name and email address for it. It recommends registering in its app „HOWOGE Wohnungssuche“, though, and the later steps need an account: you confirm your viewing slot after signing in to HOWOGE's portal, and after the viewing you send your details through the app (more on this).

How long does HOWOGE take to answer?

HOWOGE says it depends on the number of applications; whoever is chosen after the viewing is told straight away. It invites only the requests the lottery draws to a viewing: if no invitation comes, you weren't drawn, and HOWOGE doesn't write to say no (more on this).

What happens after I send a request to HOWOGE?

First comes the email „Bitte bestätigen Sie Ihre Anmeldung“: tap „Anfrage bestätigen“ in it within 24 hours, or your request doesn't count. Then an automated lottery picks a few of the requests for a viewing (more on this).

What documents does HOWOGE want?

Only after the viewing, and then within 24 hours: proof of income or the job centre's or benefits office's rent guarantee, proof that you owe no rent (Mietschuldenfreiheit) and, for a flat that needs one, your WBS. To the viewing you bring your ID card (more on this).

Sources: HOWOGE, rental conditions · HOWOGE, privacy information · HOWOGE, WBS · HOWOGE, letting process · HOWOGE, questions and answers · HOWOGE's emails to an applicant, October and November 2026