justmovetoeurope.com
Just Move to Munich
Munich, Germany — your playbook for visa, housing, community, and building.
Showing tips specific to Munich alongside general European resources.
Germany's enterprise tech capital — deep tech, automotive, and robotics.
Cost
€€€
Avg Rent
€700–€1,200/mo
Visa
Medium
Ecosystem
Medium (enterprise, deep tech)
Prices are approximate and vary by neighborhood and season. Rent assumes a room in a shared flat or coliving and may exclude utilities. Snapshot as of 17 March 2026.
If you do nothing else
Sort your visa
Same German visa framework as Berlin; Ausländerbehörde wait times can be long
Find your first home
Budget €700–€1,200/mo for a room or coliving.
Register your address & open a bank account
Required in most EU countries within 2 weeks of arrival.
Plug into the community
Luma, Meetup, or local Slack/Telegram — just show up.
Start building
Ship something in your first week. Builders attract builders.
Your First 30 Days in Munich
Week-by-week playbook with € tips, local registration, and banking.
Read guide →Visa & Immigration
Hit the official overview first, then dig into the common paths below.
Start here
Official overview or main portal for visas and residence.
Join a company
Work visas and EU Blue Card for employed roles.
Start a company
Visas for founders and self-employed.
Freelance / self-employed
Residence permits for freelancers and self-employed.
Explore & search
Job-seeker permits, graduate routes, Global Talent, and other exploratory visas.
Hire across borders (EOR platforms)
If an employer doesn't have an entity in your country, these platforms can hire you compliantly on their behalf. Useful to suggest to companies as an operational path.
Housing, Coliving & Workspaces
Munich is Germany's most expensive city for housing. The tech scene is centered around Schwabing and Maxvorstadt. Budget €700–€1,200/mo for a room.
Company Setup & Legal
German GmbH or UG — same framework as Berlin. IHK Munich and BayStartUP guide formation. UnternehmerTUM offers legal workshops. YPOG covers Berlin, Munich, and London.
Planning to raise VC or exit? Set up a personal Holding UG before incorporating your operative GmbH. With a holding structure, 95% of dividends and capital gains are tax-exempt (§8b KStG): ~1.5% effective tax vs ~26% as a private individual. A UG costs as little as €1 to incorporate. This is standard for German startups, but easy to miss as a first-time founder. Talk to a Steuerberater early.
Startup Perks
Free credits and discounts from cloud providers, AI platforms, dev tools, and more. Perks apply regardless of where you're based. Start with the directories below.
Communities
Munich's startup community is more corporate-adjacent than Berlin's but growing fast. Oktoberfest aside, the tech meetup scene is very active.
Events & Meetups
Regular meetups, AI events, and local tech gatherings.
Hackathons
Munich's hackathon scene is anchored by hackaTUM — one of Europe's largest — and a growing AI/automotive tech event calendar.
Conferences
Europe's flagship tech conferences: great for fundraising, recruiting, and visibility. Most are worth traveling to from any city — so we list them Europe-wide.
Accelerators & Programs
Munich's accelerator scene is enterprise and deep tech focused. UnternehmerTUM is Europe's largest entrepreneurship center, based at TU Munich.
Jobs & Talent
Munich's job market is strong in enterprise tech, automotive, and AI. TU Munich is Europe's best talent pipeline for deep tech. Salaries are Germany's highest.
- Decidere – Compare personal income tax & take-home across European citiesTax-advisor-level accuracy. Expat regimes (e.g. NL 30% ruling), canton-level rates. Free & open source.Europe-wide
- Wellfound (AngelList) – European Startup JobsEurope-wide
- Welcome to the Jungle (formerly Otta): Curated Startup JobsEurope-wide
Fundraising & First Checks
Munich has strong corporate VC and traditional VC presence. The B2B/enterprise focus attracts strategic investors. BayStartUP connects startups with Bavarian programs.
Find investors & market data
Databases and directories to discover angels and VCs, plus funding data and ecosystem reports.
Pitch resources & guides
Templates, playbooks, and real pitch deck examples.
Tax incentives for investors
Programs that make angel investing more attractive to backers.
Grants & Non-Dilutive Funding
Government grants, EU programs, and non-dilutive funding sources across Europe.
EU grants apply to EU cities. London and Zurich have separate national programs.
Vibe Coding: Build Without Code
AI tools that let you go from idea to working product in hours. No engineering team required.
Transit & Travel
Munich's MVV system (U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams, buses) is punctual and comprehensive. The Deutschlandticket covers everything.
Food & Delivery
Munich blends traditional Bavarian cuisine with an increasingly international food scene. Beer gardens are social institutions, not tourist traps.
Cafes & Coworking
Munich's cafe scene is growing beyond traditional Bavarian coffee houses. Schwabing and Maxvorstadt have the best spots for laptop workers.
Culture & Lifestyle
World-class museums, opera, and the Bavarian Alps within an hour. Munich's cultural identity is uniquely German — Oktoberfest, Christmas markets, and beer hall culture.
News & Reports
Stay current on European tech, funding rounds, ecosystem shifts, and annual reports.
Podcasts & Video
Founder interviews, VC insights, and European tech stories in audio and video.
People to Follow
Founders, VCs, and ecosystem builders shaping European tech.
Go deeper
In-depth guides tailored for Munich.
Your First 30 Days in Munich
Week-by-week playbook: housing, registration, banking, and networking.
Housing in Munich
Coliving, flat shares, budgets, and the move-in playbook.
Raising Your First Check in Munich
How European VCs work, local norms, and where to start.
Finding a Cofounder in Munich
Where builders meet, hackathons, and the local cofounder scene.