LIVING IN DARMSTADT

A  PORTRAIT  FROM  A  RESIDENTIAL  PERSPECTIVE

Living in Darmstadt - sooner or later you will tumble over either of: Science. Space flight. Soccer.

When Darmstadt catches the eye of the world, one of those keywords is usually involved. After spending most of its history strangely negligible, Darmstadt started coming into its own in the age of media and IT.

Today, it is a big-name player in the modern sciences, modern arts, and serves as headquarters to prestigious new technology ventures such as SAP and T-Online. The European Space Agency ESA is located in the city district Griesheim.

Castle Kranichstein © Heidas - Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0

Darmstadt is a large and densely populated city located at the outer Southern edge of the Frankfurt Metropolitan region. A residence of nobility in previous centuries, most of its beautiful historical sites were unfortunately destroyed in the second world war. The traces of the turn-of-the-century Art Nouveau community of the city were luckier. So, the cityscape is made of a wild mix of impressions. There are medieval residencies, greyish post-war structures, Hundertwasser architecture, and hyper-modern company buildings. Living in Darmstadt, you will mostly be surrounded by young families, students and artists, so the atmosphere is youthful and vibrant. Darmstadt has everything on offer that a young population might demand: sports and fitness opportunities, arts and music, festivities such as a Gay Pride parade. The soccer club SV Darmstadt recently spent a season in the Bundesliga, the highest professional soccer league of Germany. Although it was clearly outgunned, it collected a loyal and proud fanbase in the process.

International Education

If there were such a thing as an ivory league in Germany, Darmstadt would undoubtedly be part of it. It proudly carries the title “City of Science.” Its two biggest colleges, the TU Darmstadt and the Darmstadt University of Applied Science score extremely well in university rankings concerning the IT und engineering tracks. So, it’s no surprise that living in Darmstadt would also offer you some choices regarding the schooling of your child: The ESA child care center includes an English language preschool; the International School Schuldorf-Bergstraße, covering all ages, is located in the city itself. The Elly-Heuss-Knapp-Schule, a primary school also in the city, caters to French native speakers.

Christians and Muslims will always have an easy time finding a church or mosque in Germany. However, it should be pointed out that Darmstadt also has a very active Jewish community.

Housing Market

The rapid rise in real estate prices currently underway in Frankfurt has also affected Darmstadt, which is home to many commuters. But with pricing averaging EUR 3.635/qm (apartments) and EUR 3.545/qm (houses) for buyers, and EUR 11/qm for tenants, it’s still considerably cheaper, particularly in the suburbs. Furnished living space though is considerably more expensive, especially if you like modern furniture. Here prices are easily between EUR 15/qm to the mid twenties. It is further scarcely available and decisions must be taken quick because you will always have competitors also highly interested in renting the rare space.

Darmstadt is well connected to the North towards Frankfurt and South. There is a further railway going West and a reasonably good connection to the East. All these neighbor towns are pretty close by regional trains (the "red" area will have a commute between 20-40 minutes) and while they might go every five minutes, these little cute towns can enlarge your search radius significantly.

The pricing of housing is closely related to the availability of public transport, as everywhere.

Featuring an inner-city tramway, various long-distance bus connections, and a subway connection to Frankfurt, Darmstadt is extremely well connected in general; as the subway and the long-distance train connections to Frankfurt run separately, this connection is also considerably less likely to fall prey to delays than most others in the area. Nevertheless, take into account that moving to a suburb will complicate a commute to Frankfurt; you would have to go to Darmstadt city by tramway, bus or car first, then take a train to Frankfurt from there. Commuting by car is usually less efficient. The two cities might be connected by the A5, one of Germany’s major autobahns, but that also means that you will likely get held up by the rushes of national travellers and trucks.