Moving to Frankfurt, Hesse

Why people move to Frankfurt

Frankfurt suits people whose work or life already runs on international rails: bankers, EU-institution staff, consultants, and anyone who needs to fly out on short notice. The city is small enough that most residents can walk or take one tram line to work, yet dense enough to support a real restaurant and museum scene along the Main river. Day to day, the contrast is sharper than in most German cities: glass bank towers stand a ten-minute walk from cobbled apple-wine taverns and Wilhelminian-era apartment blocks. What newcomers tend to underestimate is how compact the actual city is behind that skyline — Frankfurt proper is smaller than Cologne or Stuttgart in population, so the big-city feel comes from density and connections, not sprawl. They also underestimate the green space: a ring of parks and former fortifications, the Grüngürtel, wraps almost the entire built-up area. The tradeoff is cost. Rent and purchase prices sit near the top of the German scale, comparable to Munich in the priciest districts, and the professional culture leans more formal and corporate than Berlin's.

• Compact, walkable core lets most residents skip a daily car commute entirely.
• Frankfurt Airport puts nearly any major world city within a direct nonstop flight.
• A dense skyscraper skyline sits a short walk from quiet, tree-lined residential streets.
• ICE high-speed rail reaches Cologne, Munich, and Paris in well under four hours.
• A large international workforce means English gets you through most professional situations.
• A green belt of parks and former fortifications rings nearly the entire city.

What Frankfurt is famous for

• The Bankenviertel skyline

  Frankfurt has more skyscrapers than any other German city, a cluster of bank headquarters that locals nicknamed "Mainhattan." The European Central Bank's tower anchors the Ostend riverfront just east of the historic core.

• Frankfurter Buchmesse

  The Frankfurt Book Fair, held every October, is the largest trade fair for books in the world and draws publishers and authors from well over 100 countries into the city's exhibition halls.

• The rebuilt Altstadt and Römerberg

  Frankfurt's medieval old town was almost entirely destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt in phases, most recently with a 2018 reconstruction project around the Römerberg square that recreated dozens of historic facades from scratch.

• The Museumsufer

  A run of roughly a dozen museums, including the Städel art museum, lines the south bank of the Main river, giving Frankfurt one of the highest concentrations of museums per capita of any German city.

• Apple wine culture in Sachsenhausen

  Ebbelwoi, a tart local apple wine served in a distinctive ribbed glass, is poured in traditional taverns throughout Sachsenhausen and is treated as a genuine regional institution rather than a tourist gimmick.

• Goethe's birthplace

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in Frankfurt in 1749, and his reconstructed childhood home in the old town is one of the city's most visited literary sites.

Neighborhoods in Frankfurt

Frankfurt splits cleanly into a dense financial core and a ring of distinct residential quarters, and the walk from one to the next rarely takes more than 20 minutes. Westend and Ostend sit closest to the office towers and command the highest rents. Nordend and Bornheim offer classic pre-war apartment blocks with a slower pace, while Bockenheim and Gallus lean younger and more budget-conscious. Families who want new construction and more space tend to move further out to purpose-built suburbs like Riedberg. Because the city is compact, even the outer districts stay well within reach of downtown by tram or S-Bahn.

• Westend

  Tree-lined streets mix restored Gründerzeit villas with the bank towers themselves, and Goethe University's main campus sits right in the middle.

  Good for

  Finance professionals and academics who want to walk to work in the CBD

• Sachsenhausen

  Cobbled lanes of traditional apple-wine taverns near the river give way to quieter, more residential streets further south.

  Good for

  Renters who want nightlife and museum access without full downtown prices

• Nordend

  Dense, well-preserved pre-war apartment blocks surround a strong weekly farmers' market and an established café culture.

  Good for

  Families and professionals chasing a classic Altbau flat close to the center

• Bornheim

  A village-like high street, Berger Straße, is lined with independent shops and stays noticeably more affordable than neighboring Nordend.

  Good for

  Budget-conscious families and first-time renters in Frankfurt

• Bockenheim

  The former university quarter keeps a student-town feel with cheap eats and direct tram lines straight into downtown.

  Good for

  Students and younger renters watching every euro

• Gallus

  A fast-changing former industrial district next to the main train station, increasingly diverse and under heavy redevelopment.

  Good for

  Newcomers wanting newer-build apartments close to major transit hubs

• Ostend

  The European Central Bank tower anchors a stretch of converted warehouses and new riverside apartment blocks.

  Good for

  Renters chasing new construction with an EU-institution-adjacent commute

• Riedberg

  A purpose-built suburb around Goethe University's science campus offers wide streets, playgrounds, and newer low-rise housing.

  Good for

  Families prioritizing new construction, schools, and green space over central-city energy

Stadtteile Count

43

Ortsbezirke Count

16

Note

The city is formally divided into 43 statistical Stadtteile (districts) grouped into 16 Ortsbezirke (boroughs); Westend, Nordend, and Sachsenhausen are each further split into two statistical sub-areas.

Climate in Frankfurt

Frankfurt has a temperate continental climate with clearly separated seasons. Winters run cool and often gray, with daytime highs hovering just above freezing in January and occasional light snow rather than heavy accumulation. Spring warms up quickly through April and May, and summer brings the warmest, most humid stretch of the year, with July highs averaging near 79°F and occasional heat spikes into the 90s. Autumn cools gradually, with September and October still mild enough for outdoor time before the gray winter pattern returns. Rain falls fairly evenly across the year rather than concentrating in one season, with summer months seeing slightly more precipitation from thunderstorms.

Annual precipitation

23.56 in

Sunny days (estimate)

~140 days (secondary estimate derived from typical Central German annual sunshine-hour totals; DWD does not publish an official 'sunny days' count for this station)

Source: Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) Frankfurt Airport station, 1991-2020 climate normals, as aggregated by Wikipedia's Frankfurt am Main climate table (direct DWD pages were robots-blocked at research time)

Cost of living in Frankfurt

German rent and purchase prices are quoted per square meter (EUR/m2), not by bedroom count, so the studio/1br/2br/3br/4br figures above are planning estimates: we applied Frankfurt's actual 2026 per-m2 asking-rent rates by size band to typical German unit sizes (roughly 35, 45, 65, 90, and 110 m2). Treat these as budgeting ranges, not live listings — actual rents vary significantly by district, building age, and whether the unit is a first-time (Erstbezug) or existing let. Home purchase figures are asking prices from listings, which typically run a few percent above eventual transaction prices.

Taxes when you move to Frankfurt

Income tax

Germany has no state or city income tax — only a federal income tax (Einkommensteuer) applies everywhere, including Frankfurt. For 2026, the first 12,348 EUR of taxable income per person (24,696 EUR for married couples filing jointly) is tax-free, after which rates rise progressively from 14% up to 42% at 69,879 EUR, holding flat at 42% until 277,826 EUR, then rising to a top rate of 45% above that.

Local tax

There is no municipal or Hesse state income tax surcharge on wages. The Soli (solidarity surcharge) still exists but now only applies above 20,350 EUR of tax liability for single filers (40,700 EUR joint) for 2026, so most employees no longer pay it. Members of a registered church additionally pay Kirchensteuer, typically 8-9% of income tax owed, but this is opt-in by religious registration, not a Frankfurt-specific charge.

Sales tax

Germany's VAT (Mehrwertsteuer) is a flat national rate of 19% on most goods and services, with a reduced 7% rate on items like groceries, books, and (permanently as of January 2026) restaurant food, though not beverages.

Property tax

Property owners pay an annual Grundsteuer (property tax) based on an assessed property value multiplied by a municipal Hebesatz (multiplier) that Frankfurt sets independently. We could not confirm Frankfurt's exact current Hebesatz from a public official source during this research pass — Germany's 2025 Grundsteuer reform reset assessment methods nationwide and current multipliers are best confirmed directly with the Stadtkasse Frankfurt or a local Finanzamt rather than assumed.

Source: Wundertax — German Tax Changes 2026 (secondary summary of federal tax parameters)

Jobs in Frankfurt

Unemployment: 7.0%.

Bundesagentur für Arbeit — Agentur für Arbeit Frankfurt am Main (local employment agency office, city-level press release) (2026-05)

Key industries: Banking and financial services; Central banking and EU-level regulatory institutions; Aviation and logistics; Trade fairs and exhibitions; Professional services (audit, law, consulting); Consumer goods and food manufacturing.

Schools in Frankfurt

Frankfurt follows Hesse's standard German school structure: four years of Grundschule (primary school), followed by tracked secondary options — Gymnasium, Realschule, Hauptschule, or the more flexible Gesamtschule. Because of the city's large international and financial-sector population, Frankfurt also hosts a notably deep bench of international and bilingual schools, including long-established English-curriculum options, which is unusual for a German city of this size. We were not able to confirm a current city-specific public-school enrollment figure from Frankfurt's statistics portal during this research pass; families should check directly with the Staatliches Schulamt Frankfurt for current capacity and enrollment numbers by district.

Westend and Nordend are known for well-regarded Gymnasien close to the center; Riedberg's newer schools serve the fast-growing science-campus suburb; several international schools cluster in the western suburbs near the airport corridor.

Crime and safety in Frankfurt

Frankfurt reads as a moderately safe city by German standards, without the reputation for serious violent crime that its size and financial-hub status might suggest. Petty theft and pickpocketing around the main train station and busy nightlife strips are the most commonly cited concerns rather than violent crime. Official city-level police crime statistics (PKS data from the Hessisches Landeskriminalamt/BKA) were not reachable through public channels during this research pass, so the figures below rely on Numbeo, a crowd-sourced index, clearly flagged as a non-official, supplementary data point.

Overall index

Crime Index: 45.60 / Safety Index: 54.40 (Numbeo composite scores, 0-100 scale, mid-2026 data)

Numbeo's city rankings place Frankfurt in the middle of the pack among large German cities — neither a standout low-crime outlier nor a high-crime one. Official BKA/Hessisches LKA per-capita crime-rate figures were unavailable from public sources at research time, so no like-for-like national comparison could be confirmed.

Source: Numbeo Crime Index (crowd-sourced, secondary/non-official source — official Hessisches LKA and BKA city-level data was unreachable via public URLs during this research pass)

Getting around Frankfurt

Most Frankfurt residents get around without a car, relying on a dense combined network of subway, suburban rail, tram, and bus lines that all run on one integrated RMV ticket. The U-Bahn (underground/light rail) and S-Bahn (suburban rail) cover the city core and outer districts respectively, while trams and buses fill in the gaps on streets the rail lines don't reach. Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, one of Europe's busiest rail stations, puts the rest of Germany within easy ICE high-speed reach, and the Autobahn network converges on the city from every direction, centered on the notoriously busy Frankfurter Kreuz interchange.

• U-Bahn

  Underground and partially above-ground light rail network operated by VGF, covering the city core and inner districts.

• S-Bahn Rhein-Main

  Suburban rail network connecting Frankfurt to surrounding towns and the airport, operated under the RMV (Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund) fare system.

• Trams and buses

  VGF-run tram lines and local buses fill gaps between U-Bahn and S-Bahn stops, all covered by the same RMV ticket.

• Deutsche Bahn ICE/regional rail

  Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof and the airport's separate long-distance rail station connect the city to national and international high-speed routes.

Major roads: A3; A5; A66; A661; A648.

Airports near Frankfurt

• Frankfurt Airport (FRA)

  Major international hub

  ~7 miles / 12 km southwest of downtown

  Direct S-Bahn (S8/S9) to downtown in about 15 minutes; also served by long-distance ICE trains at its own separate Fernbahnhof station.

• Frankfurt-Hahn Airport (HHN)

  Secondary low-cost/charter airport

  ~75 miles / 120 km west of downtown

  Shuttle bus services connect to Frankfurt city center; no direct rail link, journey typically takes 1.5-2 hours.

Moving permits in Frankfurt

What to sort before you move

1. Register your address (Anmeldung) at the local Bürgeramt within two weeks of moving in.
2. Open a German bank account (Girokonto) before or shortly after arrival to pay rent and utilities.
3. Arrange mandatory health insurance (gesetzlich or private) — required for every resident.
4. Sort residence-permit paperwork in advance if arriving from outside the EU.
5. Book a Halteverbotszone permit for your moving truck if your street lacks dedicated loading space.
6. Set up or transfer utilities (electricity and gas through Mainova, plus internet) at your new address.
7. Register for the Rundfunkbeitrag (public broadcasting fee) once you have a confirmed address.

How Frankfurt compares

Frankfurt's rent sits above Berlin and Cologne but noticeably below Munich, tracking Germany's usual big-city cost order. Housing supply is tight across all four cities, but Frankfurt's small footprint concentrates demand into fewer square miles.

• Berlin

  1BR rent delta: +~105 EUR/month more in Frankfurt

  Berlin averages 15.41 EUR/m2 versus Frankfurt's 16.59 EUR/m2 (Miet-check.de, 2026); Berlin has a larger, more varied rental market.

• Munich

  1BR rent delta: -~62 EUR/month less in Frankfurt

  Munich remains Germany's most expensive rental market at 19.10 EUR/m2 versus Frankfurt's 16.59 EUR/m2 (Miet-check.de, 2026).

• Cologne

  1BR rent delta: +~121 EUR/month more in Frankfurt

  Cologne averages 15.05 EUR/m2, among the more affordable large German cities, versus Frankfurt's 16.59 EUR/m2 (Miet-check.de, 2026).

Moving to Frankfurt: FAQ