In short
- Request the flat with the form at the end of its page on wbm.de: no account, no documents.
- Fill in the self-disclosure. The email „Ihre Wohnungsanfrage - Selbstauskunft …“ brings the flat's photos and a link: give your household's size, income and WBS within 24 hours. The link works once.
- The draw. Among the complete self-disclosures that fit the flat, a random draw picks a few for a viewing. Not picked? WBM sends no email, not even a no, so silence is normal.
- The viewing. Confirm it through the link in „Einladung zu einem Besichtigungstermin …“, and bring your ID.
- Upload your documents. After the viewing WBM asks one viewer at a time, picked at random. The email „Ihre Wohnungsanfrage - Dokumentenabfrage …“ wants every adult's documents within 24 hours, all at once.
- Sign the contract at WBM's office, once the first part of the deposit is paid.
Sources: WBM, FAQ · WBM, register your interest · WBM's emails to an applicant, 2023 and 2024
When WBM's flats go online
In the last 13 weeks, 274 of WBM's flats went online on its own website, as FlatStrike saw them, in 134 different hours: 98% of them from Monday to Friday, the most on Fridays (22%).
By weekday
By hour of the day, Berlin time
56% of those hours were between 11:00 and 17:00. Each hour counts once, however many flats went online in it. If you look for its flats yourself, look on weekdays between 11:00 and 17:00. These are past weeks, not a schedule of WBM's.
Source: FlatStrike, when each of WBM's flats first appeared on its website
1. The request
Every WBM flat on offer is on wbm.de, and at the end of its page is the form „Besichtigungstermin anfragen“ (ask for a viewing). It asks whether you have a WBS and, if so, its details, then your name, address, email and phone. No account, no documents. WBM takes requests for a flat only this way, and keeps no waiting list.
Sometimes the first email is „Ihre Anfrage …“: tap its link to confirm your email address.
Every later step comes by email, mostly from noreply@wbm.de, and two of them give you a day. Use an address you read every day, and answer only through the links in WBM's emails.
Applied with FlatStrike? The app sends your request through this form, with the email address in your profile: WBM's emails come there, and every step after the request is yours.
A search request
Nothing on offer that fits? WBM's form „Interesse anmelden“ registers a search request (Wohnungsgesuch): district, rooms, size, total rent, features. WBM may send you offers that match it, but promises none, and suggests checking its offers often and asking for a flat directly. For new builds, tick „Neubau“ and your district: WBM emails about four months before the building is finished.
Sources: WBM, FAQ · WBM, flats on offer · WBM, register your interest · WBM's emails to an applicant, 2023 and 2024
2. The self-disclosure
Usually within a few days, the email „Ihre Wohnungsanfrage - Selbstauskunft WBM Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Berlin-Mitte mbH“ arrives. It carries the flat's exposé and a set of photos as PDFs: at WBM, the first viewing is these photos.
It reads like an email with pictures, but it has a deadline. If you want the flat, complete your details through its link within 24 hours. The link works once, and late or incomplete answers end in a no.
It asks how many people move in and how many of them are under 18; your WBS, its income limit and any special housing need it confirms; your household's monthly net income; and what's left of it each month for rent after your regular costs. A guarantor (Bürgschaft) isn't income. Looking for someone else? Enter their details, not yours.
Get the figures right: you'll have to prove them later, and WBM can exclude anyone who gave false ones, for a long time too. Send no documents yet: WBM deletes any it didn't ask for. If more of these emails come on the same day, the one self-disclosure counts for those flats too.
Too many requests
Instead of this email, „Ihre Wohnungsbewerbung“ may come: so many requests arrived that WBM chose the viewers by when each request came in. That's a no for this flat. So ask for a flat as soon as you see it.
Sources: WBM, FAQ · WBM's emails to an applicant, 2023 and 2024
3. The draw
WBM's system first checks each self-disclosure against the flat: the WBS and its income limit where the flat needs one, the group a flat is meant for, such as seniors or students, and the rooms for the size of your household. The whole warm rent may be at most 40 % of your household's net income.
Among the complete self-disclosures that fit, a random draw picks a limited number for a viewing.
Not picked? WBM sends you nothing, not even a no: it writes its no only to those it invited to the viewing, once someone has signed the lease for the flat.
Sources: WBM, FAQ · WBM's emails to an applicant, 2023 and 2024
4. The viewing
If you're drawn, the email „Einladung zu einem Besichtigungstermin …“ names the day, the time and the street, with a calendar file. You meet in front of the building, on time. Confirm or cancel through the link in the email; it also shows the exposé. The day before, „Erinnerung Besichtigungstermin …“ reminds you.
The invitation is personal: bring an ID card or passport, which WBM's staff look at. Only you and the people named in your self-disclosure may come. Because of repeated fraud, WBM lets no one view for someone else, not even with a power of attorney, and passing a viewing slot on excludes you.
Bring no documents: WBM takes none at the viewing.
Sources: WBM, FAQ · WBM's emails to an applicant, 2023 and 2024
5. The documents
After the viewing, WBM picks one of the viewers who still want the flat, at random, and asks only them for documents. If it's you, the email „Ihre Wohnungsanfrage - Dokumentenabfrage …“ comes, possibly on the day of the viewing.
It wants the documents of every adult moving in, within 24 hours, through a link that works once: upload all of them in one go. WBM takes this as your binding yes and meanwhile sets your other requests aside. Late or incomplete documents end in a no.
What it asks for:
- proof of income for the last three months, such as payslips, a new work contract, a pension or a Jobcenter or BAföG notice; bank statements don't count;
- proof that you pay your rent: a letter from your landlord that you owe none (Mietschuldenfreiheitsbescheinigung), or your lease and your last three payments;
- a SCHUFA credit report to pass on to others, with its verification code and without the score, at most three months old; or, free, WBM's form „SCHUFA-Klausel zu Mietanträgen“ filled in, and WBM checks for you;
- for a flat that needs one, your WBS with all its pages and the income certificate, or at least the result of the Senate's WBS calculator;
- your residence permit if you have one, and where the flat needs it, proof of study or of a special segment.
Each document goes in as one PDF with all its pages, those of everyone who signs together. WBM's German FAQ asks for German and allows English only in exceptional cases; its English FAQ allows German or English alike and adds: at most 1 MB a file. You may black out what the flat doesn't need.
Have the documents ready as files before your first request: a day is all you get. What a landlord may ask for, and when, is in our guide Applying for a flat.
Sources: WBM, FAQ · WBM, FAQ in English · WBM, SCHUFA clause for rental applications · WBM's emails to an applicant, 2024
6. The contract
If your documents are complete, on time and match your self-disclosure, WBM decides. In 2024 the yes came as the email „Mietvertragstermin“ (an appointment for the lease): the draft lease, a direct-debit form, the code for WBM's tenant portal, and a time to sign at WBM's tenant service, Dircksenstraße 38.
Before it, pay the first instalment of the deposit and the rent for the rest of the month. Bring the proof of payment, an ID card or passport, and your residence permit if you have one: without the proof WBM hands over no keys. The deposit is three months' rent.
The other viewers hear now: WBM sends its no, „Ihre Wohnungsbewerbung bei der WBM …“, only to those it invited to the viewing and only once the lease is signed, and for new builds let from show flats it usually sends none. A no is for that one flat: WBM may still consider you for the others you asked for.
Sources: WBM, FAQ · WBM, flats on offer · WBM's emails to an applicant, 2023 and 2024
Every six months: keep your details
Both of WBM's forms, the one under each flat and the one for a search request, say it above their button: WBM deletes what you send after six months. A request the app sent went through the form under the flat, so this holds for it too.
Before then, WBM's letting team emails „Löschung Ihres Wohnungsgesuchs WBM Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Berlin-Mitte mbH“: your search request will be deleted soon. Tap the link in it, and WBM keeps your details for six more months. WBM asks you to do so even while a selection for a flat is under way.
The email names no date, only "soon", so tap the link the day it comes. It can come again a month later: tap the link in each one. It comes from a WBM staff address rather than noreply@wbm.de; look in your spam folder too. Answer only through the link: WBM asks for no replies.
To change what you're looking for, send the search form again: WBM's system recognises you and keeps the newer request.
Sources: WBM, register your interest · WBM, flats on offer · WBM's emails to an applicant, 2023 and 2024
Flats that need a WBS
Many WBM flats need a WBS: WBM lets 63 % of the flats that fall free each year only to people with one. A flat's page names the WBS it needs, such as „WBS 160/ 180/ 220 erforderlich“. The number says how far your income may be over the basic limit: 100 is within it, 140 up to 40 % over, and so on up to 220.
Your WBS also says how many rooms you may rent: a smaller flat is fine, a larger one isn't. One person usually gets a WBS for one room, or for two rooms up to 50 m².
Give its details in the request form already: valid until, rooms, income limit, special housing need. For a subsidised flat, WBM takes only a WBS that fits; for its other WBS flats, the result of the Senate's WBS calculator can do instead. Not sure whether you'd get a WBS? Our WBS calculator works it out in a minute.
Sources: WBM, FAQ · WBM, flats on offer · Senate Department for Urban Development, WBS calculator
No money, no stand-ins
WBM charges no commission. Some people pose as agents working for WBM and ask for one: pay them nothing, and ask WBM if in doubt. WBM refuses money and gifts from applicants, and whoever offers them can be excluded from its flats.
No one can view a flat for you, and passing WBM's forms or a viewing slot on to someone else excludes you.
WBM's emails come from addresses that end in @wbm.de. Its flats are on wbm.de, and WBM points to inberlinwohnen.de for the offers of all the city's own housing companies.
Sources: WBM, flats on offer · WBM, FAQ · WBM's emails to an applicant, 2023 and 2024
Questions people ask about WBM
Does WBM ask for a SCHUFA report?
Yes, but only once it asks you for documents after the viewing: a SCHUFA credit report to pass on to others, with its verification code and without the score, at most three months old. Or, free, upload WBM's form „SCHUFA-Klausel zu Mietanträgen“ filled in, and WBM checks with SCHUFA itself (more on this).
Do I need a WBS for a WBM flat?
For many: WBM lets 63 % of the flats that fall free each year only to people with a WBS, and a flat's page names the one it needs. Give its details in the request form already; after viewing a subsidised flat, WBM takes only a WBS that fits (more on this).
Is there a WBM application portal?
You apply with the form at the end of a flat's page on wbm.de, with no account: WBM takes requests for a flat no other way. Every later step comes by email, with a link just for you (more on this).
When will WBM get back to me?
Usually within a few days of your request, it sends you the flat's photos and details and asks for your self-disclosure. Not picked for a viewing? Then WBM sends you nothing about that flat, not even a no: it writes its no only once the lease is signed, and only to those it invited (more on this).
What happens after my request?
If you still want the flat after its photos, you complete your self-disclosure within 24 hours; among those that fit, WBM picks a few for a viewing. After the viewing, it asks one viewer, picked at random, for their documents, again within 24 hours (more on this).
Which documents does WBM want, and when?
Only after the viewing, and only when it asks you, through your personal link: WBM doesn't check what you send before by email or post. It wants the documents of every adult moving in: proof of income for the last three months, proof that you pay your rent, a SCHUFA report and, where needed, your WBS (more on this).
Sources: WBM, FAQ · WBM, SCHUFA clause for rental applications · WBM, flats on offer · WBM's emails to an applicant, 2023 and 2024
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