Sounds like a dumb question, I know, but here is what (and why) I'd like to know:

Apartments that have longer-term but close-ended contracts show up sometimes on my apartment search. I assume they're advertised because the buildings are due to be refurbished and the former permanent tenants have started moving out as they've found new places.

If that's the case, has anyone lived in one of these flats? By the time you're right up against the end of the contract, is the building mostly empty (and creepy)? Do the landlords still respond promptly to requests to fix things even though the building is about to be torn down? Are there other reasons besides impending Sanierung that a flat might be listed for a 1.5-2 year limited contract by the rental company?

It's short term tenure, usually 1-3 years. But I know people who live like that for more than 5 years.
Minimal maintenance.
The whole place is slowly changing into building site, with everything that comes with it.
They are often extremely cheap.
Places like that often attack students / artiest etc, it can be a little bit noisy but very fun.
btw, I don't even what was exactly your question?
Do the landlords always promptly respond to? Not at all, so there is no reason they should in this case.
To know all the (hidden) reasons for unknown situation someones would need so called crystal ball, which is notoriously hard to get.

We were in one when we first moved to Switzerland. It was supposed to be 6 months, we stayed 1.5 years, could have probably stayed anywhere between 2.5-4 years before it was actually demolished.


However, yes, I would say that by the time we moved out half of the apartments were empty, and some local kids (who were actually quite young, 12-13 years olds) were doing things like writing with marker pens on the letterboxes, sticking glue or chewing gum in the locks, graffiti with lipstick or crayons on the outside of the building.


But we saved a serious amount of money and had time to find a really good (cheap long term) apartment. And the 'besenrain' (sweep clean) when we moved out was easy - they just asked us to please remove all our belonging and rubbish, ensure the windows and doors were secure, and 'sweep' clean the apartment. We even managed to pick up some nice crystal glasses, a full bedroom furniture set and a kitchen nook from our elderly swiss neighbour for free as we moved out...