Writing an Apartment Ad: Structure, Phrasing, and a Complete Example
EverReal Editorial Team. The same rental technology chosen by 450+ real estate companies. Last updated: October 2026.
Problem: An apartment listing that praises the apartment instead of putting it into figures attracts inquiries from everyone who finds it, and every follow-up question costs time. Cause: The details searchers filter by appear too late or are missing entirely. Thesis: Providing area, rent, and move-in date early saves you from follow-up questions.
How do you write an apartment listing?
An apartment listing consists of six blocks: title, key details, description of the apartment, description of the location, mandatory details, and contact method. The title is what searchers see first and contains the number of rooms, floor area, location, and move-in date. If an energy performance certificate is available, its mandatory details belong in every advertisement in commercial media; omitting them can result in a fine.
Apartment advertisement: structure in six blocks
The portal form breaks the listing down into fields. Content-wise, an apartment advertisement consists of six blocks in a fixed order:
Title. Number of rooms, floor area, district, availability.
Key details. Base rent, service charges, deposit, floor area, number of rooms, floor level, available from.
Description of the apartment. Floor plan, bathroom, kitchen, flooring, balcony, basement storage, parking space.
Description of the location. Walking time to public transport stop in minutes, shopping, schools, daycares, street.
Mandatory details. Data from the energy performance certificate.
Contact method. How to reach you and when viewings take place.
All hard figures belong in the first two blocks. If a figure only appears later in the body text or is missing, a follow-up inquiry will inevitably follow.
The title: what belongs in it and what makes it weak
The title is the part of the listing that searchers see first. It should encourage suitable searchers to click and save unsuitable ones from wasting time.
It should include the number of rooms, living space, location at district level, and the earliest possible move-in date, plus a distinguishing feature such as a balcony or elevator as a fifth detail.
A title becomes weak through adjectives instead of numbers ("Beautiful, bright apartment in a good location" contains nothing that can be filtered by), through exclamation marks and continuous capital letters, and through a missing floor area—because then searchers for whom the apartment is too small will also open the listing.
The test: Can someone tell from this single line alone that the apartment is not suitable for them? If not, a number is missing.
Apartment listing example: a complete template, annotated
This example is entirely fictional and provided here in full, with no registration and no download required. Replace the details with those of your apartment; the structure and order remain the same.
Title
3-room apartment with balcony, 78 m², Musterstadt-Nord, available from February 1
Comment: Four filter criteria and one distinguishing feature. No subjective evaluation, no exclamation marks.
Key details
Base rent 780 euros. Advance payment for service charges 190 euros, including heating. Warm rent 970 euros. Deposit 2,340 euros, which equals three net base rents. 78 m², 3 rooms, 2nd floor with elevator. Parking space 45 euros per month extra. Available from 01/02/2027.
Comment: All numbers appear right at the top. The deposit may not exceed three times the monthly base rent excluding utilities specified as a flat rate or advance payment (Section 551 of the German Civil Code [BGB]).
Description of the apartment
The apartment is located on the second floor of an apartment building built in 1998. Across 78 square meters, there are three rooms, a daylight bathroom with a tub and shower, and a kitchen with a window. The balcony faces southwest. The rooms feature oak parquet flooring, while the bathroom and kitchen are tiled. A basement storage compartment is included, and a parking space can be booked separately. Pets allowed upon consultation.
Comment: Every sentence contains verifiable information. Words like "cozy" or "lovingly renovated" cannot be verified and are therefore omitted.
Description of the location
Residential street with no through traffic; the rooms face the green courtyard. It is a 3-minute walk to the tram stop and about 12 minutes by train to the main train station. A supermarket, bakery, and pharmacy are located within a 400-meter radius. A primary school and two daycares are within a 600-meter radius.
Comment: Instead of "quiet location", the actual reason is provided. Minutes and meters can be verified.
Mandatory details (energy performance certificate issued before January 1, 2027)
Energy consumption certificate. Final energy consumption 96 kWh/(m²·a). Primary energy source for heating: natural gas. Year of construction according to energy certificate: 1998. Energy efficiency class C.
Comment: These are the five details required under Section 87 of the Building Modernization Act (GModG) for a residential building. The order is flexible.
Contact method
Please send inquiries by email or via the contact form, ideally indicating your preferred move-in date. A name and contact detail are sufficient for the inquiry. Viewings take place in individual appointments; suggested appointments will follow after receipt of the inquiry.
Comment: The sentence regarding requested information limits the inquiry to what may be collected according to the Data Protection Conference's guidance for viewing appointments. Income details and supporting documents follow later.
In addition, photos of all rooms and, if available, a floor plan should be displayed alongside the listing text.
The listing describes the apartment and does not contain requirements regarding the background, age, marital status, or profession of the applicants.
Three phrases you should remove
"Quiet location" without proof is the first; replace it with the reason, such as a residential street with no through traffic. The second is "Proof of income required with the inquiry": According to the guidance of the Data Protection Conference (Version 2.0, as of January 2026), income details are generally not required before an explicit intention to rent is declared; proofs are only requested after deciding on a specific applicant. The third is any phrasing that excludes a group, such as "no students": It shrinks the applicant pool before you have spoken with anyone.
What must not appear in an apartment listing
Under the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG), discrimination "on grounds of race or ethnic origin" is impermissible (Section 19 (2) AGG). This prohibition also applies to an individual apartment offered publicly (Section 2 (1) No. 8 AGG), except in cases of a special personal or confidential relationship, such as when landlords or their relatives and tenants share living space on the same property. Phrases like "Germans only" or "no foreigners" filter by origin and do not belong in a listing. The broader list covering gender, religion, disability, age, and sexual identity applies to mass transactions and comparable contracts (Section 19 (1) No. 1 AGG). Under Section 19 (5) Sentence 3 AGG, renting residential space for more than temporary use is generally not considered this type of transaction if the landlord rents out no more than 50 apartments in total. Regardless of the law, a restriction like "working professionals only" narrows the applicant pool before any conversation has taken place. How to select applicants using fixed criteria, which information you may request and when, and how to issue rejections is explained in Selecting and Rejecting Rental Applicants.
Add mandatory details before posting the apartment listing
If an energy certificate is available at the time the listing is posted and the ad appears in commercial media, such as on a portal or in a newspaper, Section 87 GModG (until July 2026 the Building Energy Act) requires five items: the type of certificate (energy demand certificate or energy consumption certificate), the final energy demand or consumption value stated in the certificate, the primary energy sources for heating, and, for residential buildings, the year of construction and the energy efficiency class. For energy certificates issued from January 1, 2027 onward, new details apply, including the date of issue and annual primary energy demand; for older certificates, the five existing items remain decisive. You must present the energy certificate at the latest during the viewing (Section 80 GModG, with exceptions, for example, for listed historic buildings under Section 79 GModG); it is therefore best to obtain it before placing the listing. If details are missing and you act intentionally or negligently, this can be penalized as an administrative offense with a fine of up to ten thousand euros (Section 108 GModG). To see where each item is located on the energy certificate, see Energy Performance Certificate in Real Estate Listings: Five Mandatory Details.
Listing length and listings for multiple apartments
Section 87 GModG requires specific information, not a particular length; the example above requires only around 190 words. A detailed document including a floor plan and supporting documentation is called an Exposé. If you write listings professionally for many properties, you will find the relevant guide for professional marketers. Where to publish the listing and how portals calculate their costs is explained in Advertising an Apartment for Free: Portals and Costs.
With EverReal Go!: Create, share, and publish your listing once
Using the details from the six blocks, you create the listing once in EverReal Go!, share it, and publish it on portals via Flexible Advertising; applicants who match your apartment are displayed first: this is "It's a Match". The standalone booking Light includes the listing, identification of matching inquiries, coordination of viewing appointments, and digitally collected applicant data, costing 34 euros per rental process—a one-time fee valid for six months, VAT included. For publishing via EverReal Go! to real estate portals, Flexible Advertising is required in addition to Light, starting at 59 euros per 30 days including VAT; the three tiers differ in the included portals, and all prices can be found in the EverReal Go! pricing overview.
Summary: six blocks, all numbers early
The listing you use to rent out your apartment requires structure and completeness: six blocks, all numbers early, with verifiable information behind every statement. To see where the listing fits into the overall process, read Renting Out an Apartment: The Complete Process.
EverReal Go! is your digital assistant for renting.
Legal notice: We do not provide legal advice. For specific legal questions, a specialist attorney in tenancy and condominium law or your local property owners' association, such as Haus & Grund, can assist you.
Legal status: October 2026.
Sources
Building Modernization Act (GModG, since 29/07/2026; previously the Building Energy Act), gesetze-im-internet.de, accessed on 14/10/2026: Section 79 Principles of the energy performance certificate, Section 80 Issuance and use of energy performance certificates, Section 87 Mandatory information in real estate advertisements, Section 108 Provisions on fines
Act Amending the Building Energy Act, Amending the Building Electric Mobility Infrastructure Act, and Amending Further Regulations in the Heating Sector of 23/07/2026, BGBl. 2026 I No. 226, Art. 2 (Revised version of Section 87 and Section 112 GModG as of 01/01/2027), accessed on 14/10/2026
General Equal Treatment Act, gesetze-im-internet.de, accessed on 14/10/2026: Section 2, Section 19
German Civil Code, gesetze-im-internet.de, accessed on 14/10/2026: Section 551
Conference of the Independent Data Protection Authorities of the Federation and the Länder (DSK), Guidance "Obtaining self-disclosures from prospective tenants", Version 2.0, as of January 2026
Prices and services of EverReal Go!: de.everreal.co/go/preise, accessed on 14/10/2026
The sample listing in this article is purely fictional. 450+ real estate companies: EverReal internal data, as of September 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I write a good apartment listing?
Write it in six blocks: title, key details, description of the apartment, description of the location, mandatory details, and contact method. State all numbers early—namely base rent, service charges, deposit, area, number of rooms, and move-in date—and replace adjectives with verifiable information: instead of a quiet location, name the residential street with no through traffic; instead of good transport connections, state the exact walking time in minutes to the stop. This ensures the criteria searchers filter by appear before the body text, resulting in fewer follow-up questions.
What must be included in an apartment listing?
The details from the energy performance certificate are mandatory if one is available at the time the ad is placed and the listing appears in commercial media: the type of certificate, the value of final energy demand or consumption, the primary heating energy sources, and, for a residential building, the year of construction and the energy efficiency class (Section 87 Building Modernization Act, until July 2026 the Building Energy Act). For energy certificates issued from January 1, 2027 onward, new details apply, such as the date of issuance and annual primary energy demand; for older certificates, the five previous items remain decisive. In principle, you must present the certificate at the viewing at the latest (Section 80 Building Modernization Act). Section 87 does not require more than that. However, base rent, service charges, deposit, area, number of rooms, floor level, and move-in date should still be included because searchers filter by them.
What am I not allowed to write in an apartment listing?
Do not write any requirements concerning the individual, only details regarding the apartment. Statements like "Germans only" or "no foreigners" screen applicants based on origin: this constitutes unlawful discrimination based on ethnic origin under Section 19 (2) of the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG), even for an individual apartment offered publicly, except in cases of a special personal or confidential relationship (Section 19 (5) AGG). Regardless of the law, a restriction like "working professionals only" narrows the pool of applicants before a single conversation has taken place.
How long should an apartment listing be?
Long enough to ensure that all six blocks (title, key details, apartment, location, mandatory details, contact method) are complete: the example on this page requires around 190 words. Section 87 of the Building Modernization Act requires specific information, not a specific length. The benchmark is completeness: all hard numbers belong in the title and key details, and every sentence in both descriptions should contain verifiable information. A listing can be shortened by cutting out superfluous adjectives; the concrete details remain.
Is there a free template for an apartment listing?
Yes. A complete template comprises six blocks: a title with room count, area, location, and move-in date; key details with base rent, service charges, deposit, floor level, and move-in date; the description of the apartment; the description of the location; the mandatory details from the energy performance certificate; and the contact method. An annotated example featuring all six blocks is available on this page in full and freely accessible, with no form and no download required. Simply replace the figures and details with those of your apartment.
EverReal Editorial Team