How Two Gays from Kazakhstan Came to Germany and Renovated a 5-Story House 0 25

Alexey moved to Germany with his friend Vitaly (at the request of the heroes, their last names are not mentioned) in 2016: back in their homeland, Kazakhstan, they worked at the embassy, and in the new country, they saved on everything for several years and struggled to find jobs. Now they have moved to a village, bought a house there, and are doing renovations. Alexey told "Kholod" how they managed to settle in a new country, why it is not easy to buy a house in Germany, and why they needed to move to the village.

• Vitaly and I were both born in Kazakhstan. There we had a high standard of living: we both worked in well-paid prestigious positions at the embassy. However, I always had a dream to pursue a master's degree abroad. At that time, it was possible to study for free in Germany if you passed the competition, and Vitaly is an ethnic German; his ancestors were relocated to Kazakhstan in the 1940s, so he could easily go there on that basis. That’s how we decided to move. I got into the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart — one of the best in Europe in the field of agricultural economics. I had to pay a small fee for my studies — 130 euros per semester, although I paid much more for my education at a Kazakh university. I didn’t plan to just study and return — I set a goal to stay in Germany. Here, unlike in the CIS countries, they value important things for us: the rule of law, principles of democracy, respect for minorities — from religious groups to the LGBT community. But we were not fleeing Kazakhstan, so we were ready to return if something went wrong.

Money Was Melting Away

At the end of 2016, with a two-month gap, Vitaly and I moved to Germany. At first, I experienced a strong euphoria from the country and the new climate: back home, winter lasted from November to April, and temperatures sometimes dropped to minus 30°C, while in Germany, flowers can bloom even in January. It was a bit harder for Vitaly: when he arrived, it was just the rainy German winter. It was also very cold: sometimes we simply couldn’t warm up at home, we had to wear warm socks and sweaters — we were lucky if the indoor temperature reached at least 20 degrees.

Still, at first, we looked at the country through tourist eyes and saw only the good. I had a student life, and Vitaly attended language courses that were provided to him as a resettler. We studied, walked a lot, and despite the lack of stable income, we even managed to travel around the country.

At first, it was indeed financially tough — we arrived with a reserve of money in our bank account and watched it melt away every month. My minimum expenses were 750 euros a month, including rent for a room, and I saved on everything I could, keeping a record of my expenses.

In Dirty Clothes in the Rain

It was hard to find a job in Germany: there is huge competition in almost all fields. You can send out fifty resumes and not get any response, and it’s not because you’re a migrant: in Germany, there can really be 300–500 applicants for one position.

However, in specialties where you need to work with your hands, the competition is lower — there is currently a shortage of specialists in such professions. In Germany, being a plumber or a tiler, you can earn fantastic money — much more than a bank employee.

Moreover, it was difficult to find a job without a good level of German — the chance of getting hired with English was only in Berlin or Hamburg. In general, Germans are very reluctant to use English, and we both invested a lot of time in learning the language — we constantly walked around with textbooks and tried to speak German.

After a year, we got jobs that we couldn’t even imagine in Kazakhstan: Vitaly as a steward, and I went to the market to sell vegetables and fruits. I used to work in a prestigious position, and now I was pushing a cart of celery in dirty clothes in the rain.

But even then, I understood that I had no regrets — I knew that there would come a time when everything would be fine. At our new jobs, we wanted to learn the language and understand how the market works in Germany, and this really helped us overcome all language barriers and fears.

Crazy Bureaucracy

Over time, I found a job in my field — in digital advertising, and Vitaly found one in project management in IT. However, we could only return to our previous standard of living five years after moving.

In Germany, there turned out to be a lot of additional mandatory expenses — in net terms, we had much less money left than before. Utilities are expensive here — just for electricity, water, and internet, you have to pay about 150 euros a month.

Additionally, we had a huge number of expenses that we hadn’t thought about before — for example, liability insurance, without which you can’t rent a home. I even had to get insurance for my Instagram blog — in case some company accuses me of using their music unlawfully. It costs 294 euros a year. Monthly, for insurance payments, utilities, and other obligations, we spend, by modest estimates, no less than 300 euros.

Germany has other downsides as well. For example, crazy bureaucracy, huge regulation, and competition in any field. We also had to get used to separate waste collection — every time we had to think about where and how to throw away plastic, batteries, and light bulbs.

You’ll Have to Pay for 30 Years

Vitaly and I have always wanted to buy a house in the countryside. Several times we were on the verge of buying a house, but each time we refused for one reason or another: either the building inspector pointed out numerous flaws in the house, or we ourselves offered a price that was too low for the market, which prevented us from completing the deal.

For about five years, we searched for a suitable house. When we finally found one, we were given a mortgage at 3.5% per annum. In Germany, there are quite a few pitfalls in mortgages: the interest rate is low, but, for example, you can’t repay the entire debt early — a maximum of 20,000 euros a year over the principal payment. If I unexpectedly receive a huge inheritance and want to pay back the entire amount to the bank, I will have to pay an additional penalty of 65,000 euros. In Kazakhstan, I took out a mortgage for an apartment — albeit at 20%, but I was able to pay it off early and didn’t overpay that much, while in Germany, these 3.5% will haunt us for all 30 years.

To buy real estate here, you need a permanent residence permit. In the case of a temporary residence permit, the bank may make a concession, but, for example, raise the interest on the mortgage. But this did not affect us: by that time, I already had a permanent residence permit, and Vitaly received his passport two weeks after arriving in Germany. This year, I also received mine. I also had to go through the procedure of "loss of citizenship" because according to Kazakh laws, I cannot have two passports. I didn’t want to lose my citizenship of my homeland, but there was no choice.

The entire purchase procedure took us about five months: about a month after agreeing with the seller, the deal took place at the notary. After that, we went through many more stages: first, a temporary entry is made in the real estate register to reserve the house and protect against fraudulent transactions, after which it takes about another month to check that the house no longer belongs to anyone else. Then the previous owners are removed from the register, and we are entered as the owners — this also takes time.

Sticking to the Budget Is Impossible

In August 2024, we moved into the house — it is located in the district center of Heilbronn. From there, you can quickly get to Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

The house has five floors, but it has an unusual layout: it is built on a slope, so there are only two full floors, while three on one side are located below ground level. The space is divided into several parts: two two-room apartments (65 and about 50 square meters) and 120 square meters of regular living space. On the lowest floor, we plan to make a sauna, and there is also an attic — we don’t plan to make it residential.

According to the sellers, it was already ready for living — and we bought it for corresponding money. In the end, everything was ready there, and at the same time, nothing: pipes and sewage were leaking, the electrical work was done unprofessionally, and the renovation was mediocre. While the latter is a matter of taste, we found it important to fix everything else.

When it came time to renovate, we hoped not to get too involved and trust the specialists. However, we soon realized that we had underestimated the situation: craftsmen in Germany are not such specialists, and sticking to the necessary budget would be impossible in this case.

Easy to Fall Victim to Fraudsters

It is very hard to find good workers here — even if you look for them through a company, it doesn’t guarantee the quality of work. For example, we hired specialists to rebuild the balcony. We paid 20,000 euros for this, but the work was still done incorrectly: part of the concrete slab just stuck out. As a moral compensation, we were refunded only 500 euros. After that, we had to turn to another company — we paid them another 1,500 euros — for that money, they just slightly adjusted the balcony structure.

In addition, it’s easy to fall victim to fraudsters here. Once, when we had a pipe burst, we called plumbers and paid 400 euros. They arrived without equipment, did nothing, and even took our tools. There are many like that in Germany: they know loopholes in the laws and take advantage of them.

Even if you want to sort things out and get your money back, it will be impossible to find fault — they will respond that they worked according to the rules and did everything possible. And the law will be on their side. In Kazakhstan, there is a consumer protection union that constantly harasses unscrupulous companies, but there is nothing like that in Germany.

So we started doing the renovations ourselves — and even then, it costs a huge amount of money. For example, we drilled holes in the wall for the electrical panel and wiring so that the electrician could just come, pull and secure the wires, and install protections — but even such work will cost 10,000 euros. If specialists did everything, we would have paid about 20,000.

When we lived in Kazakhstan, I had no idea how to lay tiles, how pipes and drains worked — after all, there are qualified people who come and do everything. Now in Germany, after work, instead of watching movies or doing sports, I sit and learn a dozen new professions. Otherwise, you won’t be able to finish anything or you’ll go broke.

There Are No Young People in the Village

We couldn’t afford a house in the city, so we knew right away that we would move to the village. Near where we now live, there are many agricultural lands, a river, hills with beautiful landscapes, and small forests — although all of them are private and artificially planted. This area has vineyards and wineries, and there are also quite a few wild animals — deer, foxes, hares, and wild boars often cross our path.

I like that in Germany civilization does not end at the borders of a big city. In Kazakhstan, everything was very good in the capitals, but the villages and towns are in such a deplorable state that you feel like you are moving back a hundred years. Here, we have shops, good roads, excellent internet, and a train. The nearest city is about a 25-minute drive away — in Astana, it took me about the same time to get from my home to the center.

In German cities, there is usually a high level of crime, while in the village, you can simply leave the front door unlocked. However, sometimes we miss the youth — mainly, people over 50 live in the village. Perhaps if we didn’t have renovations and dogs, we would be a bit bored.

Moreover, rural residents are mostly conservative. And in general, it seems to me that Germans are more conservative than, for example, Scandinavians, Dutch, or English — their mentality is even closer to ours in terms of values and attitudes towards minorities. Germany was one of the last countries in Western Europe to legalize same-sex marriage — it resisted for a very long time and still does. Despite all this, we easily made friends with our neighbors — our dogs brought us closer. Now our main goal is to finish the renovations. We would like to see New Zealand and Australia, but it’s quite difficult financially — each time we have to choose: spend money on vacation or, for example, install railings on the stairs.

The biggest deprivation for us in Germany is the separation from our parents — we are very close to them, and they do not want to move to Germany. There were times when we visited our homeland several times a year, but now, with the purchase of a house, we can’t. But I think we will find a way. For now, we just want to develop professionally and be happy.