Frequent questions, clear answers

Anyone who completes the entire process becomes a member: identity confirmed, ability to comfortably afford the rent they’ve chosen, and the pledge signed. There is no selection based on personal preference, background, or income level—only the process.

No - and that's by design. Sumia is not a housing portal and does not broker listings. We make you visible and credible: your profile goes ahead of you and speaks for you - at every door you approach. You walk the path to the apartment yourself; Sumia makes sure you don't walk it as a stranger.

Yes—that’s exactly what Sumia is designed for. The German system doesn’t take into account what you bring to the table: references from previous landlords abroad, income earned elsewhere, and years of reliable tenancy in another country. Sumia confirms what can be confirmed. You arrive with a proven track record—instead of starting from scratch.

The initial consultation with our AI is free. Afterward, you decide how to proceed. Membership costs a one-time enrollment fee of 199 euros, which includes the first year of membership. After that, the annual membership fee is 99 euros. You can also maintain your profile without verification for 9.99 euros per month. Both prices apply to the entire household and are the same for everyone. A profile without verification does not constitute membership: reservations and matchmaking services are reserved for our members.

These days, looking for an apartment takes weeks of evenings, dozens of application packets, and your pay stubs sitting in strangers’ mailboxes—and once you move in, all of that is worthless. The next time you move, you start from scratch again. This article puts an end to this never-ending cycle. Your profile remains active long after you’ve moved in. It doesn’t become outdated; it builds substance: You keep it up to date—a new place, another reference, a change in your household situation—and Sumia updates it accordingly. If you’re looking for a place again in five years, you’ll search with five years of documented history instead of a freshly compiled stack of documents. On top of that, there’s support in case of conflict: If a dispute arises regarding your lease, the first consultation with a mediator from our network is always free of charge for you. The fee applies to your household, not per person. A household of four pays once. You can’t buy your way into the program. Membership is granted to those who complete the process—the interview, the confirmation, and the commitment.

Because a number would defeat the very purpose of Sumia. A score would make members comparable and thus create a ranking where everyone ends up somewhere near the bottom—and it would feign a level of precision that no one possesses, because while it’s possible to prove that someone is a good tenant, it’s impossible to quantify that to two decimal places. That’s why Sumia confirms rather than rates: A member is confirmed, or they are not a member; your available units are occupied; your desired rent is affordable. Above all, this protects you. The landlord learns that the rent is affordable—not what you earn, not how you compare to others, and not what an algorithm assumes about you.

Ihre Selbstauskünfte und Unterlagen gehören Ihnen - beim Austritt erhalten Sie sie als Export. Die Bestätigungen von Sumia erlöschen: Ihr Profil geht offline, jeder Zugang, jede Freigabe endet. Was bleibt, ist Abwesenheit - kein Vermerk, kein Eintrag, nichts, was gegen Sie spricht.

A credit report gives you a value - a number. A Sumia profile gives you the opposite: no score, no ranking, but a housing reputation that confirms instead of rating. You do not read how an applicant “performs”, but that identity, previous tenancies and the question of whether the intended rent is comfortably affordable are documented - bundled in one place instead of scattered across four attachments. The binding review of the documents remains yours.

No. Sumia does not filter applicants based on income level, but rather on whether the proposed rent is affordable – as measured by the rent the member chooses themselves, not by an income threshold. Anyone looking for a modest flat qualifies with a modest income. Membership also involves a personal commitment: to treat the flat with care and to seek dialogue first in the event of a dispute. And this commitment applies not just at the outset – anyone who breaches it loses their membership, and with it their profile. An active profile means: valid membership.

You see the confirmation, not the stack of documents: confirmed identity, documented housing reputation and the finding that the rent is comfortably affordable. Figures such as income stay out of it - you read that the rent is affordable, not what someone earns. Access to the full profile is personal, time-limited and revocable at any moment; the applicant grants it to you.

Even if this is your first time seeing Sumia, you’ll find exactly what you would have asked for anyway: a confirmed identity, documented places of residence, and confirmation that the rent is affordable—all complete, organized, and from a named source, rather than scattered across four attachments. This saves you work, regardless of whether the name is already familiar to you.

If a profile does not match the person, or a member does not keep their commitments, write to us: hello@sumia.ai. We follow up on every report. What follows from it is governed by the membership procedure - not the individual tenancy: Sumia does not rate members and does not decide conflicts.