How to choose a relocation agency in Germany

Relocation agent or moving company: which one do you need?

They sell different things, and the words overlap.

A relocation agent works for the person who moves. Typical tasks are finding a flat, registering at the authorities, opening a bank account, finding a school and, for non-EU citizens, organising the residence permit paperwork. A moving company carries your belongings from one address to another. Search words matter: a search for a removal service leads to movers, not to agents.

Some firms do both, and the association lists show the overlap. The member filter on GARP’s website has categories such as Visa and Residence, Home, School and Kindergarten Search, and International Moving and Logistics side by side (GARP member list, read 7 Oct 2026). So a membership does not tell you which service you will get. Ask.

If you need someone to carry your sofa, you need a mover. If you need someone who knows the landlords, the registration office and the foreigners authority, you need an agent. This guide is about agents. What they charge is in what a relocation agency costs in Germany.

Which types of provider exist in Germany?

Our research counted 110 qualified providers with a German office on 5 October 2026: 82 agencies, 18 freelancers, 9 relocation management companies and 1 network. The sources were the EuRA directory, the GARP member list and web research, so treat the split as an estimate. We think the true total is 110 to 160. GARP’s founding report put the number of providers at about 130 in April 2023 (moneycab, 20 Apr 2023).

• Local agencies. Our research found that most firms are small, owner-run and have one office. They know one city well.
• Agencies with several offices, and networks of independent agencies. They cover more than one city, which matters if you move between Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin.
• Global networks and relocation management companies. They manage moves from one country to another for companies. A private client can ask whether they take private orders.
• Freelancers. One person. The model exists inside agencies too: Anders Consulting states on its career page that freelancers receive 70% of the net fee for orders the agency wins itself (Anders Consulting, read 7 Oct 2026). Ask who actually does the work.
• Estate agents that sell home search. Brokering flat rentals as a business needs a permit under section 34c of the Trade Regulation Act (GewO section 34c).

What should you check before you choose?

1. Services and city. Does the agency do what you need, in your city? ReloFinder’s German hub lists agencies in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart. The Germany page shows which services each one offers.
2. Language. Ask for a consultant who speaks yours, not only the agency’s website.
3. Memberships. See the next section.
4. Licences. If the agency finds flats for a fee, ask whether it holds a permit under GewO section 34c. If it arranges insurance for you, section 34d requires a permit from the chamber of industry and commerce (GewO section 34d). Whether a given agency’s home search falls under section 34c depends on how it works, and we did not research that. Ask.
5. Legal advice. Legal services in a single case need a lawyer or another permitted provider (RDG section 3). Other businesses may help only as an ancillary service (RDG section 5). A good answer to “who handles the legal part of my permit?” is a named partner lawyer. Archer Relocation shows one way to say it: paperwork organisation and a visit to the foreigners office, with legal advice through a partner lawyer (Archer, read 7 Oct 2026).
6. Price in writing. Most agencies publish none; ask for a quote that names what is included and whether VAT is on top.

What do GARP and EuRA membership show?

GARP is the German Association of Relocation Professionals. It was founded on 20 April 2023 by IRC and five other agencies, with the goal of promoting cooperation among relocation agencies at national level (moneycab). Its public member list had 52 entries when we read it on 5 October 2026. Nine of them were insurers or finance firms, not agencies. The page shows three membership types: full memberships for relocation and moving companies, discounted full memberships for consultants, and associate memberships for suppliers. On 7 October we found no stated entry criteria or code of conduct on the page.

EuRA is the European Relocation Association. Its member directory lists destination service providers by country, with 27 firms with a German entry when we counted on 5 October 2026, and it has a filter for holders of the EuRA Global Quality Seal Plus (EuRA, read 7 Oct 2026). A seal is a stronger signal than a logo, because someone checked something. Ask which certificate the firm holds and when it was issued.

Both lists change, so read them on the day you decide. Neither is a register in the legal sense.

Which questions should you ask?

• What exactly is included, and what costs extra?
• Who is my consultant, and what happens when they are ill?
• How many viewings are in the price, and what if you find no flat?
• Does the agency come with me to the registration appointment?
• Who is the lawyer for permit questions, and is the lawyer’s fee included?
• Do you hold the permits that apply to what you sell me?
• Can you give me the price list and the terms in writing?

What are the red flags?

• A promise of a flat, a visa or a date. No agency controls the market or the foreigners authority.
• Legal advice from someone who names no lawyer.
• A fee for a flat the landlord listed. A broker may charge a searcher only if the flat was found solely because of the searcher’s order, and at most two months’ rent plus VAT (WoVermRG sections 2 and 3).
• No written scope or price, or pressure to pay in full before anything is done.
• A consultant nobody can name.
• Insurance recommended by an agency that cannot show the permit that section 34d requires.

Do you need an agency at all?

Not always. It helps when the market is tight: the CBRE-empirica index counted a market-active vacancy of 0.1% in Munich and in Frankfurt at the end of 2024 (empirica regio, 16 Dec 2025). It matters less when your employer pays for a service, or when you are an EU citizen with weeks to search on the ground. Do the steps you can do yourself with our guides on renting a flat, registering your address and health insurance, and hand over the rest. Moving to Germany: your first 90 days shows the order.

How does ReloFinder list agencies?

Agencies are ordered by one published rule, the Google rating of their own listing weighted by how many reviews stand behind it. Agencies with a paid profile sit in a separate band labelled “Recommended · paid placement”. No agency can pay for its position. The method is on the how we rank page. At the time of writing, 7 October 2026, no Google ratings have been collected, so every list is A to Z and no agency is ranked.

What we could not source

We found no register of German relocation agencies, so we cannot tell you whether a given firm is licensed for what it sells. We did not find entry criteria for GARP membership on its page, and we did not check each EuRA member’s certificate. We did not find a source on whether home-search agencies fall under the broker permit. The 110 count is ours, from three public sources, and it is not an official number.

When you are ready, tell us what you need and we pass your request to one agency that fits your city and services.