Temporary housing when moving abroad: what are your options?
Founder of Seeki.eu. Writes about buying, renting and selling across European property markets, drawing on the portal's own listings data.
Temporary housing when you move abroad costs about the same per month as a long-term flat. In every city in our table, furnished mid-term averages sit within 20% of the long-term median rent on Seeki.eu. The real price is registration. Germany gives you two weeks to register an address and Austria three days, and both need your landlord's confirmation.
Last reviewed: 2026-10-15. Seeki.eu is not a legal adviser, and this article is orientation, not advice. Registration rules depend on your nationality, your visa and how long you stay. Confirm your case with the registration office of the city you're moving to before you book. Sources at the foot of this article.
What are your temporary housing options when you move abroad?
A temporary flat is a waiting room with a kitchen. You need one because the long-term search rarely finishes before your start date. Renters on expat forums describe one to three months in short stays. One spent weeks moving between holiday rentals and hotels in Valencia. Another planned a similar stretch in the Netherlands.
| Option | Typical monthly cost | Can you register there? | Minimum stay | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-term furnished rental | City averages about €980 to €2,700 (HousingAnywhere index, Q2 2025) | Only if the landlord confirms your move-in. Ask before you book | Usually 1 month | The first 1 to 3 months, when you need an address |
| Serviced apartment | Quoted per stay, no public monthly price | Ask the operator before booking | 30 days at one operator | Employer-paid relocations |
| Aparthotel or hotel | Priced per night, no published monthly rate | Registration applies only after 3 months in Germany and 2 months in Austria | 1 night | The first one to two weeks |
| Holiday rental (Airbnb-type) | Priced per night, monthly discounts vary | Rarely, by renters' accounts: hosts seldom sign | 1 night | Stays under a month |
| Room in a shared flat or sublet (WG room, Zwischenmiete) | About €500 to €1,200 in Berlin (HousingAnywhere) | Yes, if the main tenant or owner confirms | Set by the tenant | Single movers on a budget |
| Employer housing | Set by your contract | Yes, if the employer issues the confirmation | Set by your contract | Anyone whose package includes it |
A mid-term furnished rental is the option priced by the month that most reliably gives you an address. The detour is real, but it's short if you plan it. The long-term market it leads into is mapped in what €1,000 a month rents across Europe.
Can you register your address in temporary housing?
Your address is a key, and the landlord holds part of it. Germany gives you two weeks to register a new home and Austria three days, and both need the landlord's written confirmation. In the Netherlands, registration is what gets you a citizen service number (BSN), the number the paperwork of a new life runs on.
| Country | Who registers, and by when | What you need from the landlord | Hotel or short stay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | Anyone moving into a home, within 2 weeks (Anmeldung) | A written move-in confirmation (Wohnungsgeberbestätigung). A lease doesn't replace it | Without a German address, a hotel guest registers once the stay passes 3 months |
| Austria | Anyone taking up a home, within 3 days | The provider signs your registration form (Meldezettel) | A hotel guest registers after 2 months |
| Netherlands | Anyone staying more than 4 months, within 5 days, for a citizen service number (BSN) | In Amsterdam, a valid lease or a signed consent from the main resident | Under 4 months, the non-resident register (RNI) issues a BSN on your foreign address |
| Belgium | EU citizens staying over 3 months, within 3 months. The police check that you live there | No landlord form named by the official sources | Under 3 months, report within 10 days, unless you stay where foreign guests are already recorded |
| Czechia | EU citizens staying over 30 days report to the police within 30 days | An accommodation confirmation, which the provider must give on request | A hotel or hostel reports for you |
| Poland | EU citizens staying over 30 days, by day 30 (meldunek) | The owner confirms your stay on the form | No rule found in official sources |
| Spain | Everyone living in a municipality joins its register (padrón). EU citizens also register within 3 months | In Madrid, a signed lease of at least 6 months | Madrid may ask for more on tourist contracts |
| Portugal | EU citizens apply within 30 days after their first 3 months, at the town hall, for €15 | No landlord item on the official checklist | Not covered by the official guide |
| France | No residence card required for EU citizens. A town-hall address declaration is optional | None for registration | No registration step |
Here's the twist. A hotel buys you time that a holiday rental doesn't. German and Austrian law give hotel guests two to three months before full address registration applies, and a Czech hotel files your report for you. A holiday-rental host who won't sign gives you neither, so get the confirmation promised in writing before you book.
If the detour turns into a purchase, the Buying Property in Germany as a Foreigner (2026 Guide) and the Buying Property in Austria as a Foreigner (2026 Guide) cover the buying side. So do the Buying Property in the Netherlands as a Foreigner (2026 Guide) and the Buying Property in Czechia as a Foreigner (2026 Guide).
What does the temporary phase cost against a long-term rent?
The surprise is in the monthly bill. It barely moves. HousingAnywhere, a mid-term rental platform that publishes a city rent index, puts furnished averages within 20% of Seeki.eu's long-term median rent in every city below. In most of them the furnished flat is the cheaper one.
| City | Mid-term furnished average, Q2 2025 (HousingAnywhere) | Seeki.eu median long-term rent | Seeki.eu rent (€/m²) | Long-term search |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam | about €2,700 | €2,850 (90 m²) | €32.9 | Amsterdam rentals |
| Paris | about €1,900 | €1,990 (45 m²) | €45.6 | Paris rentals |
| Lisbon | about €1,950 | €1,750 (70 m²) | €24.6 | Lisbon rentals |
| Madrid | about €1,550 | €1,850 (64 m²) | €30.4 | Madrid rentals |
| Berlin | about €1,700 | €1,594 (75 m²) | €21.8 | Berlin rentals |
| Vienna | about €1,350 | €1,478 (65 m²) | €22.8 | Vienna rentals |
| Prague | about €1,100 | €1,106 (59 m²) | €19.7 | Prague rentals |
| Warsaw | about €980 | €891 (50 m²) | €19.5 | Warsaw rentals |
Read the two columns as close neighbours. HousingAnywhere's averages come from its own index, mix unit sizes and often include utilities. Seeki.eu's figures are median asking rents of long-term apartments listed in October 2026.
So where does the money go? Into the months themselves. Every month in a short stay is a full rent paid on a home you'll leave, and the long-term deposit comes on top when you sign.
In Vienna, a three-month detour at the Seeki.eu median is about €4,400 spent before your own lease starts. For a deeper look at a single market, renting in Vienna as an expat covers deposits and contract rules.
Which local rules limit short stays?
Cities ration holiday lets like water in a drought. Amsterdam lets a resident rent their home to tourists for 30 nights a year, and fewer in parts of the centre and De Pijp, according to the City of Amsterdam. The host must live and be registered there and quote a registration number in every advert.
Berlin bans letting housing as a holiday flat without a permit under its law against the misuse of housing (Zweckentfremdungsverbot), and the registration number must appear in every advert, according to the Berlin Senate. Vienna requires a time-limited permit for short-term lets beyond 90 days a year, according to the City of Vienna.
For you, the practical rule is simple. In Amsterdam and Berlin, a holiday listing without a registration number is a reason to ask questions before you pay. A month-long holiday booking in Amsterdam uses up a host's entire legal allowance. Long-term Amsterdam flats, with their median rent in the cost table above, are already listed among the apartments for rent in Amsterdam.
How do you start the long-term search before you land?
The fastest way out of a temporary flat is to start leaving it before you arrive. On Seeki.eu you search long-term rentals across Europe in your own language, with each listing's title and description translated on demand, and prices shown in the currency you choose.
The relocation comparator ranks up to 30 cities by what one monthly rent buys, so you know where your budget stretches furthest before you book a single night. The nearby filter keeps only homes with a school, a tram stop or a park within 500 metres. That matters when you don't know the city's streets yet.
A saved search, for example apartments for rent in Berlin under your budget, brings a daily digest of new matches and price drops. That's the first weeks of the search done from your current sofa. It's also how you arrive with a shortlist instead of a blank page.
How do you make your first viewing request count?
On Seeki.eu your viewing request proposes the times that suit you, such as your first week in the city, and the agent confirms one or suggests others. You can book that week from home.
What travels with that request decides the answer. A landlord weighs a local payslip higher than a foreign one, and that's their right. Foreign proof still beats an email with no documents attached, so send it with the first request. Why landlords reject foreign tenants walks through the risks they're actually pricing.
A Seeki Pass answers those questions before they're asked. You build it once, at home, from your payslips, your contract, a previous-landlord reference and your ID. The agent sees a card of facts, what you declared next to what your documents support, never a score.
Documents open only after the agent confirms they act for the landlord, every open is logged for you, and you can withdraw the share at any time. Building is free. Sharing needs the plan at €14.90 a month after a 90-day free trial. The full document checklist is in rental application documents abroad.
What goes wrong in the temporary phase?
France's Service-Public portal is plain: no sum of money may be claimed before the lease is signed. A deposit for a flat you haven't seen breaks that rule in France, and it's the first sign of a scam anywhere. Distance makes the check harder. When you can't stand in the flat, a fake listing only has to look right on a screen, and a hotel bill makes a fast deposit feel sensible.
The pattern is familiar. In one Brussels thread, a studio found on a social-media page came with a request for a reservation deposit and a copy of the renter's ID, before anyone had seen it. France's data protection authority, the CNIL, says a viewing shouldn't depend on handing over supporting documents, and it tells renters to check a request isn't a scam before sending anything.
Three habits keep you safe. Never pay for a flat you or someone you trust hasn't seen. Send a marked, dated copy of your ID with the number blacked out, as the Dutch government recommends. And prefer a channel that records who opened what.
That last habit is the Seeki Pass gate, with every open shown to you. Renting in the Netherlands as a foreigner adds the Dutch rules on fees a landlord may not charge. Your first long-term request can go out complete while you're still at home.
Frequently asked questions
Can you register your address at an Airbnb in Germany or Austria?
Only if the host provides the paperwork. Germany requires a landlord's move-in confirmation, the Wohnungsgeberbestätigung, within two weeks, and a rental contract doesn't replace it. Austria requires the accommodation provider (Unterkunftgeber) to sign your registration form, the Meldezettel, within three days. A holiday-rental host who won't sign leaves you unregistered, so ask before you book.
Does Seeki.eu list temporary or short-term housing?
No. Seeki.eu lists long-term homes for rent and for sale across Europe, not holiday or mid-term rentals, and a long-term home is where your temporary stay should end. The sooner that search starts, from home, the fewer short-stay months you pay for a flat you'll leave. Each of those months costs roughly a full long-term rent.
Can you request a rental viewing from abroad on Seeki.eu?
Yes. A Seeki.eu viewing request lets you propose the times that suit you, such as your first week in the city, and the agent confirms one or suggests others. You can attach a Seeki Pass, a card of documented facts about your income, employment and rental history. The request never depends on the Pass, so you can send one before your documents are ready.
Is temporary housing more expensive than a long-term rent?
Per month, barely. In Berlin a furnished mid-term flat averages about €1,700 a month, against a Seeki.eu long-term median asking rent of €1,594. The cost is the number of months. Three months at Vienna's Seeki.eu median is about €4,400 spent before your own lease starts, with the long-term deposit still to come.
How long should you book temporary housing for?
Book the minimum on offer and extend if you must. One large serviced-apartment operator sets a 30-day floor in Paris, Vienna and Prague, and extending is easier than leaving early. With your long-term search on Seeki.eu already running, you can sign the week the right flat appears, and every month you don't book saves a full rent.
Can a Seeki Pass help me get a long-term flat faster?
It makes your first viewing request the complete one. A landlord comparing applicants sees your documented facts at once, instead of a one-line message and a promise. Foreign proof weighs less than a local payslip, but it beats an email with no documents attached. Building is free. Sharing is €14.90 a month after a 90-day free trial, and no card guarantees a flat.
Sources
- Germany, registration within two weeks, landlord confirmation and the hotel rule: Federal Registration Act, § 17, § 19 and § 29, Berlin service portal, registering an apartment, BayernPortal, Anmeldung.
- Austria, registration within three days, signature of the accommodation provider and the hotel rule: Registration Act 1991, § 3 and § 5, City of Vienna, registering a residence.
- Netherlands, BRP registration, BSN and RNI: Government of the Netherlands, Personal Records Database Act, art. 2.38, City of Amsterdam, first registration.
- Belgium, registration of EU citizens and the residence check: IBZ, registration and reporting obligation, City of Brussels, EU citizen registration.
- Czechia, reporting the place of residence: Act 326/1999 on the residence of foreign nationals, § 93, § 100e and § 102, Czech government portal.
- Poland, temporary registration: Act on population records, art. 41, City of Warsaw, gov.pl.
- Spain, municipal register and EU registration: Law 7/1985, art. 15 and 16, Royal Decree 240/2007, art. 7, City of Madrid, padrón registration requirements (sede.madrid.es).
- Portugal, EU registration certificate: gov.pt, living in Portugal, AIMA, registration certificate for EU nationals.
- France, residence rights of EU citizens: Service Public, F2651, optional town-hall declaration: French Senate bill preamble citing Civil Code art. 104. EU-wide rules: Your Europe, registering your residence.
- Short-term rental limits: City of Amsterdam, holiday rental permit, Berlin Senate, ban on misuse of housing, City of Vienna, renting flats to tourists.
- Scams and documents: Service-Public, documents a landlord may request and the ban on payments before signing, CNIL, supporting documents for a rental, Government of the Netherlands, safe ID copies.
- Mid-term rental prices, fetched 14 October 2026: HousingAnywhere city pages for Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Madrid, Prague, Warsaw and Lisbon, each quoting the HousingAnywhere International Rent Index for Q2 2025. Minimum stays from a serviced-apartment operator's city pages for Paris, Vienna and Prague.
- Renter experiences: forum threads from Valencia, the Netherlands and Brussels (individual accounts, not statistics).
- Seeki.eu rent medians: median monthly asking rent of rental apartments with a price and floor area published on Seeki.eu on 14 October 2026, converted to euros.