Sentiment among German investors about the outlook for Europe's largest economy improved in May, the latest survey by the ZEW economic research institute showed today.
The think tank said its economic sentiment indicator, based on a survey of 301 analysts and institutional investors, rose to 24.0 this month from 16.5 in April.
'The economic upswing in Germany seems to be hardly influenced by the VAT increase and the economic downturn in the US,' ZEW President Wolfgang Franz said in a statement, referring to a three-point VAT rise earlier this year.
'Increasing employment rates in all economic sectors and a good investment climate put the upswing on a sustainable growth path,' he added.
A separate gauge of current conditions for Germany advanced to 88 from 76.9 in April. The consensus forecast was for a reading of 79.
A measure of expectations for the euro region rose to 22.3 in May from 10.7 the previous month, the ZEW said.
Story from RTÉ Business : http://www.rte.ie/business/2007/0522/Germany.html
links: Centre for European Economic Research
Dienstag, 22. Mai 2007
Dienstag, 15. Mai 2007
Germany shows strong growth - Eurozone beats forecasts
The eurozone saw solid growth in the first three months of 2007, beating expectations, official figures show.
The 13-country area's economy grew 3.1% year-on-year - below the 3.3% growth seen in the previous quarter, but beating the 2.9% forecast.
The data fuels analysts' view that the area's interest rates are set to rise.
Last week, the European Central Bank (ECB) kept rates at 3.75%, but the bank's head called for "strong vigilance" to counter price risks.
The expression by Jean-Claude Trichet is viewed as a way of implying that the benchmark rate will be lifted to 4% at the ECB's next meeting in June.
"Stronger-than-expected eurozone GDP growth should help provide the extra leverage to the ECB for higher rates in the next few months," said David Brown of Bear Stearns.
While annual growth was 3.1%, growth on a quarter-by-quarter basis hit 0.6%, beating the 0.5% forecast.
"Today's GDP [gross domestic product] report strengthens our belief that the eurozone economy is on a sustained growth trajectory," said Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING.
Less damage
A major factor behind the growth was strength in Germany -
Separate data from Germany's government showed that national growth for the quarter - while less than the previous period - beat expectations, hitting 0.5%.
Although German consumer spending was dented by higher value-added tax (VAT), which rose from 16% to 19% in January, this was countered by strong investment.
Economists greeted the German figures - which showed a 3.3% rise year-on-year - positively.
Bear Stearns' David Brown said: "With the impact of Germany's VAT hike causing less damage to German growth in the first quarter, it has helped solidify euro zone growth... over the last 12 months."
Sebastian Wanke of Dekabank said: "Although the basic story of private consumption and trade as brakes on growth... appears to be valid, it is happening at a higher level than expected."
Eurozone forecasts
Meanwhile, official data from France showed its economy grew by 0.5% in the quarter - the same as the previous three-month period.
Overall, the 27-member European Union saw growth reach 3.2% year-on-year, exceeding the 2.1% seen in the US for the same period.
Separately, the European Commission forecast strong growth over the next six months in the eurozone, before slowing in the final quarter.
The 13-country area's economy grew 3.1% year-on-year - below the 3.3% growth seen in the previous quarter, but beating the 2.9% forecast.
The data fuels analysts' view that the area's interest rates are set to rise.
Last week, the European Central Bank (ECB) kept rates at 3.75%, but the bank's head called for "strong vigilance" to counter price risks.
The expression by Jean-Claude Trichet is viewed as a way of implying that the benchmark rate will be lifted to 4% at the ECB's next meeting in June.
"Stronger-than-expected eurozone GDP growth should help provide the extra leverage to the ECB for higher rates in the next few months," said David Brown of Bear Stearns.
While annual growth was 3.1%, growth on a quarter-by-quarter basis hit 0.6%, beating the 0.5% forecast.
"Today's GDP [gross domestic product] report strengthens our belief that the eurozone economy is on a sustained growth trajectory," said Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING.
Less damage
A major factor behind the growth was strength in Germany -
the region's largest economy.
Separate data from Germany's government showed that national growth for the quarter - while less than the previous period - beat expectations, hitting 0.5%.
Although German consumer spending was dented by higher value-added tax (VAT), which rose from 16% to 19% in January, this was countered by strong investment.
Economists greeted the German figures - which showed a 3.3% rise year-on-year - positively.
Bear Stearns' David Brown said: "With the impact of Germany's VAT hike causing less damage to German growth in the first quarter, it has helped solidify euro zone growth... over the last 12 months."
Sebastian Wanke of Dekabank said: "Although the basic story of private consumption and trade as brakes on growth... appears to be valid, it is happening at a higher level than expected."
Eurozone forecasts
Meanwhile, official data from France showed its economy grew by 0.5% in the quarter - the same as the previous three-month period.
Overall, the 27-member European Union saw growth reach 3.2% year-on-year, exceeding the 2.1% seen in the US for the same period.
Separately, the European Commission forecast strong growth over the next six months in the eurozone, before slowing in the final quarter.
Donnerstag, 3. Mai 2007
Berlin Property: An Investment Market
It is a fact that Berlin in Germany has undervalued real estate and with shrewd multi national companies already investing in the city its only a matter of time that others will follow. It is now time for the smaller overseas property investor to examine Berlin's housing market. Research reveals compelling evidence that Berlins housing market is the next big thing in European city investment.
Berlin real estate offers overseas property investors a great opportunity to benefit from low prices with great potential for capital gains. Berlin's property prices are still low and represent the lowest prices in any European City. Recently Prudential Real Estate Investors announced that it had acquired the famous Ewerk office situated in the heart of Berlin. The Ewerk, a former transformer station built in 1928, was renovated during 2004 and 2005.
So why is Berlins housing market full of cheap property? A little research into Berlins City history reveals why Berlins property prices dropped and never caught up with other European cities.
The opening of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the reunification of Germany (1990) resulted in a wave of optimism. The expectations for Europe's largest economy and it's newly created capital city Berlin were high. The pent-up demand particularly from the East Berliners was immense. The conclusion at the time was that the city required a massive investment and construction programme in all sectors.
The Berlin construction boom of the early nineties coincided with both the reduction in residents and more importantly their purchasing power. This coincided with an increase in unemployment levels. The net result was a fall in the price of property and rental values. Berlin witnessed an increase in the availability of office and residential space without an appropriate increase in demand.
Between 1994 and 2004 new property prices fell in Berlin by 30% and rents by 15%.The disposal of large property portfolios by public authorities further undermined price levels.
Property prices in most European countries significantly increased while those in Berlin stagnated or fell. Berlin now represents the most competitively priced property in Europe.
The people of Berlin like to rent property with only 12% of Berliners owning their properties compared with over 20% in Hanover, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart. This lack of demand has kept prices low and provides buyers with ample supply of Berlin tenants.
Tourism has increased by 16% in 2004 alone. In excess of 2,000 four and five star hotel rooms have been built in the last 3 years including Ritz-Carlton and Radisson. There were 14 million overnight stays in 2005 compared to 11.2 million in 2003. British tourism increased by 22% in 2006 alone.
The indications are that Berlin is set to boom and the time appears to be now for overseas property investors to head for Berlin.
Berlin real estate offers overseas property investors a great opportunity to benefit from low prices with great potential for capital gains. Berlin's property prices are still low and represent the lowest prices in any European City. Recently Prudential Real Estate Investors announced that it had acquired the famous Ewerk office situated in the heart of Berlin. The Ewerk, a former transformer station built in 1928, was renovated during 2004 and 2005.
So why is Berlins housing market full of cheap property? A little research into Berlins City history reveals why Berlins property prices dropped and never caught up with other European cities.
The opening of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the reunification of Germany (1990) resulted in a wave of optimism. The expectations for Europe's largest economy and it's newly created capital city Berlin were high. The pent-up demand particularly from the East Berliners was immense. The conclusion at the time was that the city required a massive investment and construction programme in all sectors.
The Berlin construction boom of the early nineties coincided with both the reduction in residents and more importantly their purchasing power. This coincided with an increase in unemployment levels. The net result was a fall in the price of property and rental values. Berlin witnessed an increase in the availability of office and residential space without an appropriate increase in demand.
Between 1994 and 2004 new property prices fell in Berlin by 30% and rents by 15%.The disposal of large property portfolios by public authorities further undermined price levels.
Property prices in most European countries significantly increased while those in Berlin stagnated or fell. Berlin now represents the most competitively priced property in Europe.
The people of Berlin like to rent property with only 12% of Berliners owning their properties compared with over 20% in Hanover, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart. This lack of demand has kept prices low and provides buyers with ample supply of Berlin tenants.
Tourism has increased by 16% in 2004 alone. In excess of 2,000 four and five star hotel rooms have been built in the last 3 years including Ritz-Carlton and Radisson. There were 14 million overnight stays in 2005 compared to 11.2 million in 2003. British tourism increased by 22% in 2006 alone.
The indications are that Berlin is set to boom and the time appears to be now for overseas property investors to head for Berlin.
His position means that he is contact with hundreds of real estate agents and developers world wide.
This has enabled him to gain a unique insight into international real estate markets from those who work in them at first hand.http://www.homesgofast.com/home/Germany/
Donnerstag, 19. April 2007
Berlin and Munich - top for investment!
Britons considering Germany as a Property Investment location should put the cities of Berlin and Munich top of their list, an Overseas Property expert said today.
According to Amberlamb, the property market in both cities has been static for the past five years and as such offers investors an ideal opportunity to make real gains in the long-term.
Spokesperon Rhiannon Williamson said both of the cities offer potential investors everything "from the lifestyle to location" as well as employment opportunities.
According to Amberlamb, the property market in both cities has been static for the past five years and as such offers investors an ideal opportunity to make real gains in the long-term.
Spokesperon Rhiannon Williamson said both of the cities offer potential investors everything "from the lifestyle to location" as well as employment opportunities.
"Germany is quite simpley a great place to invest for those seeking rental income. This is simple because Germans like to rent houses. There is most certainly not the same culture of home ownership in Germany as there is in the UK or Ireland for example. Both Berlin and Munich are in demand with tenants seeking a broad range of rental stock and both have an abundance of property for sale. They also have a wide range of property types available for sale, from city centre apartments to spacious houses in the suburbs."
She added that Frankfurt in the west of the country was also experiencing growth, due to its `excellent infrastructure.´.
source: Overseas Property news
Donnerstag, 29. März 2007
Buying up Berlin - the sale's on now
Investing in Germany Want a morgue, a TV tower, or Goebbels' rundown wartime lakeside love-nest? Derek Scally on why Berlin is auctioning off, well, everything
Fancy living in the former lakeside love-nest of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels?
Or how about owning Berlin's television tower, the city's most recognisable landmark after the Brandenburg Gate?
It's sale of the century in the German capital. The invasion of foreign investors into the property market has boosted confidence here to the point where even the city government is opening its property portfolio, filled with long-hidden jewels and one-of-a-kind development opportunities.
All are sold at public auction, without advance guide prices.
"The Irish are hugely interested in everything we have and our property portfolio is extremely varied," says Anette Mischler of the Berlin Real Estate Fund (Liegenschaftsfonds, LFB), a state body set up in 2001 to sell off property owned by the city state of Berlin.
"Until our body was created, an unlucky would-be investor had to talk to up to 26 different government bodies. Now there is just one point of contact."
Nearly 18 years after unification, Berlin remains a one-of-a-kind property market. Unlike other cities, like Munich where the state owns less than 5 per cent of city property, over half of property in the capital belongs to the Berlin state government, the senate.
This legacy of East German state ownership is a costly burden in a city with debts of over €40 billion and so the government has consolidated ownership of all its property into the LFB. Its mission: to auction it all off.
"We've got everything: empty hospitals, industrial buildings, disused wartime bunkers. We sold a morgue the other day," says Ms Mischler.
Until now, all that was lacking in this property pick n' mix were willing, solvent buyers.
But Germany's economic recovery in the last 12 months has taken care of that. Now foreign investors are arriving in the capital in huge numbers, attracted by the quality, location and value of the properties up for grabs.
Perhaps the most curious "fixer-upper" on the LFB books is the "Waldhof" villa 40kms north of Berlin, dubbed "Goebbels' love-nest".
The Nazi propaganda minister used the villa, completed in 1939, to entertain the German film industry's leading ladies until the war spoiled his fun and his family was forced to move here from Berlin in 1943. Two years later the Goebbels family left the villa for their notorious swansong in Hitler's bunker.
The 100sq m (1,076sq ft) villa, with a livingroom overlooking the Bogensee lake, was remodelled after the war into a youth hostel for scouts and regularly housed GDR bigwigs, including the later Politburo chief Erich Honecker.
Now empty and rather shabby, the villa will need a good makeover from its new owners. Thrown in with the villa is 15 hectares (37 acres) of forest grounds.
Back in central Berlin, and just about to come on the market, is the Alte Manze (Old Mint) located in the eastern city centre just behind Alexanderplatz and Berlin's landmark "Rotes Rathaus" town hall.
Another landmark building up for auction is the Lapidarium, located directly on the Landwehr Canal near Potsdamer Platz. The building has a varied history - it was Berlin's first pumping station in the 19th century and Andy Warhol held wild parties here in the 1980s. Today the building is home to city statues that are surplus to requirements.
The LFB has no shortage of undeveloped sites of interest to property developers.
Cream of the crop is the Humboldthafen (Humboldt Harbour), opposite Berlin's new main train station and just 200 metres from the Chancellery and the Reichstag.
Investors are being sought for a 110,000sq m (1,184,029sq ft) waterside mixed-use residential and commercial development surrounding the harbour basin and the LFB has just begun to release onto the market the first of nine sites, varying from 3,900-23,000sq m (41,979-247,569sq ft).
"There is no other city in Europe with such huge sites in a central location on the open market, only in Berlin," said Ms Mischler.
Another site about to come on the market is on Hausvogteiplatz, near the foreign ministry and just behind Unter den Linden boulevard. It's expected to be turned into a development of townhouses, similar to another popular development nearing completion on a neighbouring site. Perhaps the LFB's most sought-after sites at the moment are a 24,000sq m (258,333sq ft) area of development property in the embassy district facing the Tiergarten park.
"People are snatching those sites out of our hands," says Ms Mischler.
She warns that much of the agency's high-yield property has already been sold off, making the property on offer more suitable for mid-to-long-term investment.
But the ongoing inventory process of Berlin's state-owned property agency means that the LFB doesn't know what it will have to auction off in the months and years to come, and recommends that potential investors make contact.
Last year the agency sold property worth €280 million and already 2007 looks like it's going to be a record year.
One landmark object not being sold by LFB which has just come on the market is the landmark Television Tower, a Sputnik-like monument to superior Communist engineering built in 1969.
Paddy Power bookmakers is already speculating that Coca Cola will buy the tower, worth an estimated €40 million, from its current owner Deutsche Telekom.
"The television tower is the ideal advertising hoarding for the company," said Paddy Power, "high above the roofs of the city, popular with Berliners and a popular tourist attraction."
But Berlin officials have rejected the idea of using the 368-metre tower for advertising purposes, making it unclear what the new owners are expected to do exactly with their new plaything. But with a fantastic viewing deck, a retro bar and revolving restaurant, anything goes . . .
Werner Jenke
source: http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/property/2007/0329/1175003387366.html
00 49 30 22 33 69 72 werner.jenke@liegenschaftsfonds.deMr Kai Renken
00 49 30 22 33 66 95
Kai.Renken@liegenschaftsfonds.de© 2007 The Irish Times
Fancy living in the former lakeside love-nest of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels?
Or how about owning Berlin's television tower, the city's most recognisable landmark after the Brandenburg Gate?
It's sale of the century in the German capital. The invasion of foreign investors into the property market has boosted confidence here to the point where even the city government is opening its property portfolio, filled with long-hidden jewels and one-of-a-kind development opportunities.
All are sold at public auction, without advance guide prices.
"The Irish are hugely interested in everything we have and our property portfolio is extremely varied," says Anette Mischler of the Berlin Real Estate Fund (Liegenschaftsfonds, LFB), a state body set up in 2001 to sell off property owned by the city state of Berlin.
"Until our body was created, an unlucky would-be investor had to talk to up to 26 different government bodies. Now there is just one point of contact."
Nearly 18 years after unification, Berlin remains a one-of-a-kind property market. Unlike other cities, like Munich where the state owns less than 5 per cent of city property, over half of property in the capital belongs to the Berlin state government, the senate.
This legacy of East German state ownership is a costly burden in a city with debts of over €40 billion and so the government has consolidated ownership of all its property into the LFB. Its mission: to auction it all off.
"We've got everything: empty hospitals, industrial buildings, disused wartime bunkers. We sold a morgue the other day," says Ms Mischler.
Until now, all that was lacking in this property pick n' mix were willing, solvent buyers.
But Germany's economic recovery in the last 12 months has taken care of that. Now foreign investors are arriving in the capital in huge numbers, attracted by the quality, location and value of the properties up for grabs.
Perhaps the most curious "fixer-upper" on the LFB books is the "Waldhof" villa 40kms north of Berlin, dubbed "Goebbels' love-nest".
The Nazi propaganda minister used the villa, completed in 1939, to entertain the German film industry's leading ladies until the war spoiled his fun and his family was forced to move here from Berlin in 1943. Two years later the Goebbels family left the villa for their notorious swansong in Hitler's bunker.
The 100sq m (1,076sq ft) villa, with a livingroom overlooking the Bogensee lake, was remodelled after the war into a youth hostel for scouts and regularly housed GDR bigwigs, including the later Politburo chief Erich Honecker.
Now empty and rather shabby, the villa will need a good makeover from its new owners. Thrown in with the villa is 15 hectares (37 acres) of forest grounds.
Back in central Berlin, and just about to come on the market, is the Alte Manze (Old Mint) located in the eastern city centre just behind Alexanderplatz and Berlin's landmark "Rotes Rathaus" town hall.
Another landmark building up for auction is the Lapidarium, located directly on the Landwehr Canal near Potsdamer Platz. The building has a varied history - it was Berlin's first pumping station in the 19th century and Andy Warhol held wild parties here in the 1980s. Today the building is home to city statues that are surplus to requirements.
The LFB has no shortage of undeveloped sites of interest to property developers.
Cream of the crop is the Humboldthafen (Humboldt Harbour), opposite Berlin's new main train station and just 200 metres from the Chancellery and the Reichstag.
Investors are being sought for a 110,000sq m (1,184,029sq ft) waterside mixed-use residential and commercial development surrounding the harbour basin and the LFB has just begun to release onto the market the first of nine sites, varying from 3,900-23,000sq m (41,979-247,569sq ft).
"There is no other city in Europe with such huge sites in a central location on the open market, only in Berlin," said Ms Mischler.
Another site about to come on the market is on Hausvogteiplatz, near the foreign ministry and just behind Unter den Linden boulevard. It's expected to be turned into a development of townhouses, similar to another popular development nearing completion on a neighbouring site. Perhaps the LFB's most sought-after sites at the moment are a 24,000sq m (258,333sq ft) area of development property in the embassy district facing the Tiergarten park.
"People are snatching those sites out of our hands," says Ms Mischler.
She warns that much of the agency's high-yield property has already been sold off, making the property on offer more suitable for mid-to-long-term investment.
But the ongoing inventory process of Berlin's state-owned property agency means that the LFB doesn't know what it will have to auction off in the months and years to come, and recommends that potential investors make contact.
Last year the agency sold property worth €280 million and already 2007 looks like it's going to be a record year.
One landmark object not being sold by LFB which has just come on the market is the landmark Television Tower, a Sputnik-like monument to superior Communist engineering built in 1969.
Paddy Power bookmakers is already speculating that Coca Cola will buy the tower, worth an estimated €40 million, from its current owner Deutsche Telekom.
"The television tower is the ideal advertising hoarding for the company," said Paddy Power, "high above the roofs of the city, popular with Berliners and a popular tourist attraction."
But Berlin officials have rejected the idea of using the 368-metre tower for advertising purposes, making it unclear what the new owners are expected to do exactly with their new plaything. But with a fantastic viewing deck, a retro bar and revolving restaurant, anything goes . . .
Werner Jenke
source: http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/property/2007/0329/1175003387366.html
00 49 30 22 33 69 72 werner.jenke@liegenschaftsfonds.deMr Kai Renken
00 49 30 22 33 66 95
Kai.Renken@liegenschaftsfonds.de© 2007 The Irish Times
Dienstag, 20. März 2007
Walls of investment come down in Berlin
While property soars around the world, one country's prices are actually falling. So is this the time to snap up a bargain in Germany? Graham Norwood reports
Professional property investors say that if house prices have already risen in an area, they've missed the boat - and the bargains - and should move on to lower-priced locations. In which case, there must be an awful lot of investors staring at Germany.
At first sight, its feeble housing market performance seems inexplicable. Prices have fallen since 2000, while across the whole of western Europe values have risen by an average 90 per cent and those in Britain by 120 per cent.
Germany still limps along at the bottom of estate agent Knight Frank's Global Price Index, too, the latest results from which are revealed exclusively in The Sunday Telegraph.
Latvia tops the chart, with prices in the capital, Riga, rising by 66·6 per cent in a year. It is followed by Poland - a new entry because reliable figures were not previously available - and Denmark, up 33 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively.
Both are neighbours of Germany, yet there it sits at the bottom of the Global Price Index, with prices actually falling by 3·2 per cent. This is despite it having the EU's biggest economy and largest population, making it appear ripe for canny investors.
Three problems have held Germany back, at least until now. Firstly, supply of homes has far exceeded demand. After reunification between East and West in 1990, there was ferocious new house-building by developers, vying for buyers with hundreds of thousands of unloved Communist flats suddenly on sale.
Secondly, subsidised housing and strict rent controls have made renting much more attractive than buying on the open market. German owner-occupation is only 43 per cent (it is 72 per cent in the UK), while in Berlin it is a mere 12 per cent and in Hamburg 20 per cent.
Thirdly, the cost of buying is high (you pay about 12 per cent of the purchase price in fees) and it's not so easy to get a mortgage in Germany as in most of Europe.
As a result, prices remain low even in cities which have seen modest rises recently. One-bedroom apartments in Berlin, the country's capital and largest urban centre, range from £20,000 to £60,000. Frankfurt, the most commercially successful city in Germany and mainland Europe's finance capital, ranges from £40,000 to £70,000.
High-rolling investors can even buy whole blocks. For £1·2 million, the price of an apartment in prime central London, you can get 28 flats in a 100-year-old block in the Wedding suburb of Berlin, albeit in need of extensive refurbishment.
But there are changes appearing in the market. House-building levels have dropped from western Europe's highest to its lowest in seven years, some rent subsidies are being phased out to encourage more people to buy, and competing mortgage products are trying to woo investment buyers.
"Being at the foot of the table now is exactly why investors should look at Germany," says Knight Frank's head of research, Liam Bailey. "But they must select the right property in the right city. The East is a no-go area because of continuing massive over-supply and poor quality, but some cities in the West are expanding." The most promising investment markets are in Hamburg, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich.
A few pioneering British investors have already taken the plunge. London civil servant Simon Luker has bought a small Berlin studio apartment in a modernised period block in the suburb of Neukollen for only £21,000.
"I've been looking to invest overseas for some time," he says, "and was surprised to learn German property was considerably lower than even Riga or Prague." Ray Chapman, a business manager from Hastings, and Sue Hart, head of a health treatment centre in Hertfordshire, looked at Eastern Europe but decided against investing because the infrastructure was relatively undeveloped. Instead they bought a £35,000 one-bedroom apartment 15 minutes from Berlin city centre.
"Berlin has a superb infrastructure and is almost tailor-made for buy-to-let," Ray explains. "Our investment is long-term, as German law dictates that any property sold within 10 years attracts 25 per cent capital gains tax. Berlin is an attractive rental market that isn't based on seasons or low-cost airlines getting routed."
Estate agents are now beginning to sell properties to foreigners. "New builds have been decreasing at a record level," says Gregory Lu of Imoinvest, an agency selling property in Berlin and Leipzig. "This means those new schemes that have been available achieve high sales with little or no discount. This has knock-on effects with the refurbishment of old blocks and larger buildings spilt into condos."
But there are still some sceptics. "The idea that the German market is a sleeping giant which will roar into action with a burst of high price inflation remains an elusive dream," writes Professor Michael Ball in his annual European housing survey for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He repeats the warning that East Germany has "substantial oversupply contributing to weak prices and rents" but says the West is picking up.
Knight Frank's Liam Bailey maintains that this is exactly the point, however. "Investors should go behind the headline figure and look more closely at the German sub-markets," he says.
"That's where the hot spots are."
source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2007/03/20/pgermany120.xml
Professional property investors say that if house prices have already risen in an area, they've missed the boat - and the bargains - and should move on to lower-priced locations. In which case, there must be an awful lot of investors staring at Germany.
At first sight, its feeble housing market performance seems inexplicable. Prices have fallen since 2000, while across the whole of western Europe values have risen by an average 90 per cent and those in Britain by 120 per cent.
Germany still limps along at the bottom of estate agent Knight Frank's Global Price Index, too, the latest results from which are revealed exclusively in The Sunday Telegraph.
Latvia tops the chart, with prices in the capital, Riga, rising by 66·6 per cent in a year. It is followed by Poland - a new entry because reliable figures were not previously available - and Denmark, up 33 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively.
Both are neighbours of Germany, yet there it sits at the bottom of the Global Price Index, with prices actually falling by 3·2 per cent. This is despite it having the EU's biggest economy and largest population, making it appear ripe for canny investors.
Three problems have held Germany back, at least until now. Firstly, supply of homes has far exceeded demand. After reunification between East and West in 1990, there was ferocious new house-building by developers, vying for buyers with hundreds of thousands of unloved Communist flats suddenly on sale.
Secondly, subsidised housing and strict rent controls have made renting much more attractive than buying on the open market. German owner-occupation is only 43 per cent (it is 72 per cent in the UK), while in Berlin it is a mere 12 per cent and in Hamburg 20 per cent.
Thirdly, the cost of buying is high (you pay about 12 per cent of the purchase price in fees) and it's not so easy to get a mortgage in Germany as in most of Europe.
As a result, prices remain low even in cities which have seen modest rises recently. One-bedroom apartments in Berlin, the country's capital and largest urban centre, range from £20,000 to £60,000. Frankfurt, the most commercially successful city in Germany and mainland Europe's finance capital, ranges from £40,000 to £70,000.
High-rolling investors can even buy whole blocks. For £1·2 million, the price of an apartment in prime central London, you can get 28 flats in a 100-year-old block in the Wedding suburb of Berlin, albeit in need of extensive refurbishment.
But there are changes appearing in the market. House-building levels have dropped from western Europe's highest to its lowest in seven years, some rent subsidies are being phased out to encourage more people to buy, and competing mortgage products are trying to woo investment buyers.
"Being at the foot of the table now is exactly why investors should look at Germany," says Knight Frank's head of research, Liam Bailey. "But they must select the right property in the right city. The East is a no-go area because of continuing massive over-supply and poor quality, but some cities in the West are expanding." The most promising investment markets are in Hamburg, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich.
A few pioneering British investors have already taken the plunge. London civil servant Simon Luker has bought a small Berlin studio apartment in a modernised period block in the suburb of Neukollen for only £21,000.
"I've been looking to invest overseas for some time," he says, "and was surprised to learn German property was considerably lower than even Riga or Prague." Ray Chapman, a business manager from Hastings, and Sue Hart, head of a health treatment centre in Hertfordshire, looked at Eastern Europe but decided against investing because the infrastructure was relatively undeveloped. Instead they bought a £35,000 one-bedroom apartment 15 minutes from Berlin city centre.
"Berlin has a superb infrastructure and is almost tailor-made for buy-to-let," Ray explains. "Our investment is long-term, as German law dictates that any property sold within 10 years attracts 25 per cent capital gains tax. Berlin is an attractive rental market that isn't based on seasons or low-cost airlines getting routed."
Estate agents are now beginning to sell properties to foreigners. "New builds have been decreasing at a record level," says Gregory Lu of Imoinvest, an agency selling property in Berlin and Leipzig. "This means those new schemes that have been available achieve high sales with little or no discount. This has knock-on effects with the refurbishment of old blocks and larger buildings spilt into condos."
But there are still some sceptics. "The idea that the German market is a sleeping giant which will roar into action with a burst of high price inflation remains an elusive dream," writes Professor Michael Ball in his annual European housing survey for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He repeats the warning that East Germany has "substantial oversupply contributing to weak prices and rents" but says the West is picking up.
Knight Frank's Liam Bailey maintains that this is exactly the point, however. "Investors should go behind the headline figure and look more closely at the German sub-markets," he says.
"That's where the hot spots are."
source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2007/03/20/pgermany120.xml
Donnerstag, 15. März 2007
ORCO Germany erhält Baugenehmigung für FEHRBELLINER in Berlin
eierliche Übergabe durch Berliner Senatorin für Stadtentwicklung
Frau Junge-Reyer auf der MIPIM in Cannes
Die Berliner Senatorin für Stadtentwicklung Frau Junge-Reyer überreicht Rainer Bormann, Vorstandsvorsitzender der ORCO Germany, die Baugenehmigung für FEHRBELLINER in Berlin auf der internationalen Immobilienfachmesse MIPIM in Cannes.
Cannes, 15. März 2007 - „Wir sind stolz, dass mit der Baugenehmigung in dieser Woche alle Weichen für den Baubeginn Ende März gestellt sind und ein sehr ambitioniertes und echtes Wohn-Loft-Living-Projekt im Herzen der Stadt realisiert wird. Bis heute sind bereits 40 Prozent der Fläche reserviert.“ so Rainer Bormann.
Mit der Entwicklung der „FEHRBELLINER“ des Architekten Eike Becker entsteht ein Projekt, in dem die Identität Berlin Mitte, die Ambition individueller Lebensentwürfe und die Perspektive des Standortes aufeinander treffen. Architektonisch zeigt sich das in der
Verschmelzung von Gegensätzen und einer Vielfalt an Produkten. Äußerlich wird ein
Kontrast von Baustilen, Formen und Materialien entstehen. In der neuen Gebäudestruktur gruppieren sich verschiedene Wohnwelten für spezielle Lebensmodelle: Lofts, Flats, Townhouses, Penthouses – jedes mit ganz spezifischen Merkmalen in nach fünf verschiedenen Leitideen entworfenen Ausstattungen. Entstehende Freiräume auf den Dächern, in den Höfen und Gärten werden für individuelle Nutzungen konzipiert und ergänzen die Wohnangebote mit verschiedenen Services und Features. Bereits Anfang der Woche erhielt ORCO Germany – ebenfalls auf der MIPIM in Cannes – die Baugenehmigung für das geplante Sky Office in Düsseldorf.
Weitere Informationen finden Sie unter www.fehrbelliner.de.
ORCO Germany
ORCO Germany ist eine am Open Market der Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse notierte Immobiliengesellschaft. Das
Unternehmen ist seit dem Jahr 2004 in Deutschland tätig und konzentriert sich auf Wohn- und Gewerbeimmobilien
sowie auf Asset Management und Projektentwicklung. Im Bereich Projektentwicklung hat sich das Unternehmen
durch die Akquisition der Viterra Development im Jahr 2006 strategisch verstärkt. Derzeit beschäftigt ORCO in
Deutschland 87 Mitarbeiter.
Orco Property Group
Die Orco Property Group ist mit EUR 1.31 Milliarde (Stand: 31.12.2006) Asset under Management ein führender
Investor, Projektentwickler und Asset- und Fondsmanager im Real Estate- und Hospitality-Markt in Zentraleuropa.
Orco Property Group mit Sitz in Luxemburg ist an den Börsen Euronext and Prague Stock Exchange notiert und
bereits seit 1991 in Zentraleuropa aktiv. Das Beteiligungsportfolio umfasst IPB Real, MaMaison Apartments &
Hotels, Orco Real Estate und andere Gewerbeimmobilien.
Orco Property Group agiert in verschiedenen Ländern, darunter überwiegend in der Tschechischen Republik,
Ungarn, Polen, Russland, Kroatien, der Slowakei und Deutschland und analysiert permanent mögliche
Investments in weiteren Regionen.
Orco Property Group ist zudem Initiator und Manager des Endurance Real Estate Fund, ein in Luxemburg
regulierter so genannter “Closed-End and Umbrella Fund” für Immobilien in Zentral-Europa. Der geschlossene
Immobilienfonds richtet sich an institutionelle Investoren und beläuft sich derzeit auf EUR 141,6 Mio. Asset under
Management und verwaltet Assets in Höhe von EUR 160 Mio. ORCO hat innerhalb dieses Dachfonds einen
zweiten Subfonds mit einem Zielvolumen von 100 Mio. EUR aufgelegt. Das Hauptaugenmerk liegt dabei auf dem
Erwerb, der Entwicklung, dem Management und der Veräußerung von Wohnimmobilien im Mittelklasse- und
Luxussegment in Zentraleuropa, Deutschland, Kroatien und Russland.
AUSSENDER
Marcel Wiskow
Kirchhoff Consult AG
Ahrensburger Weg 2
22359 Hamburg
T +49 40 60 91 86 55
F +49 40 60 91 86 60
marcel.wiskow@kirchhoff.de
www.kirchhoff.de
quelle: http://www.pressemeldungen.at/bauenwohnen/d9f65e9ad7125f20f.html
Frau Junge-Reyer auf der MIPIM in Cannes
Die Berliner Senatorin für Stadtentwicklung Frau Junge-Reyer überreicht Rainer Bormann, Vorstandsvorsitzender der ORCO Germany, die Baugenehmigung für FEHRBELLINER in Berlin auf der internationalen Immobilienfachmesse MIPIM in Cannes.
Cannes, 15. März 2007 - „Wir sind stolz, dass mit der Baugenehmigung in dieser Woche alle Weichen für den Baubeginn Ende März gestellt sind und ein sehr ambitioniertes und echtes Wohn-Loft-Living-Projekt im Herzen der Stadt realisiert wird. Bis heute sind bereits 40 Prozent der Fläche reserviert.“ so Rainer Bormann.
Mit der Entwicklung der „FEHRBELLINER“ des Architekten Eike Becker entsteht ein Projekt, in dem die Identität Berlin Mitte, die Ambition individueller Lebensentwürfe und die Perspektive des Standortes aufeinander treffen. Architektonisch zeigt sich das in der
Verschmelzung von Gegensätzen und einer Vielfalt an Produkten. Äußerlich wird ein
Kontrast von Baustilen, Formen und Materialien entstehen. In der neuen Gebäudestruktur gruppieren sich verschiedene Wohnwelten für spezielle Lebensmodelle: Lofts, Flats, Townhouses, Penthouses – jedes mit ganz spezifischen Merkmalen in nach fünf verschiedenen Leitideen entworfenen Ausstattungen. Entstehende Freiräume auf den Dächern, in den Höfen und Gärten werden für individuelle Nutzungen konzipiert und ergänzen die Wohnangebote mit verschiedenen Services und Features. Bereits Anfang der Woche erhielt ORCO Germany – ebenfalls auf der MIPIM in Cannes – die Baugenehmigung für das geplante Sky Office in Düsseldorf.
Weitere Informationen finden Sie unter www.fehrbelliner.de.
ORCO Germany
ORCO Germany ist eine am Open Market der Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse notierte Immobiliengesellschaft. Das
Unternehmen ist seit dem Jahr 2004 in Deutschland tätig und konzentriert sich auf Wohn- und Gewerbeimmobilien
sowie auf Asset Management und Projektentwicklung. Im Bereich Projektentwicklung hat sich das Unternehmen
durch die Akquisition der Viterra Development im Jahr 2006 strategisch verstärkt. Derzeit beschäftigt ORCO in
Deutschland 87 Mitarbeiter.
Orco Property Group
Die Orco Property Group ist mit EUR 1.31 Milliarde (Stand: 31.12.2006) Asset under Management ein führender
Investor, Projektentwickler und Asset- und Fondsmanager im Real Estate- und Hospitality-Markt in Zentraleuropa.
Orco Property Group mit Sitz in Luxemburg ist an den Börsen Euronext and Prague Stock Exchange notiert und
bereits seit 1991 in Zentraleuropa aktiv. Das Beteiligungsportfolio umfasst IPB Real, MaMaison Apartments &
Hotels, Orco Real Estate und andere Gewerbeimmobilien.
Orco Property Group agiert in verschiedenen Ländern, darunter überwiegend in der Tschechischen Republik,
Ungarn, Polen, Russland, Kroatien, der Slowakei und Deutschland und analysiert permanent mögliche
Investments in weiteren Regionen.
Orco Property Group ist zudem Initiator und Manager des Endurance Real Estate Fund, ein in Luxemburg
regulierter so genannter “Closed-End and Umbrella Fund” für Immobilien in Zentral-Europa. Der geschlossene
Immobilienfonds richtet sich an institutionelle Investoren und beläuft sich derzeit auf EUR 141,6 Mio. Asset under
Management und verwaltet Assets in Höhe von EUR 160 Mio. ORCO hat innerhalb dieses Dachfonds einen
zweiten Subfonds mit einem Zielvolumen von 100 Mio. EUR aufgelegt. Das Hauptaugenmerk liegt dabei auf dem
Erwerb, der Entwicklung, dem Management und der Veräußerung von Wohnimmobilien im Mittelklasse- und
Luxussegment in Zentraleuropa, Deutschland, Kroatien und Russland.
AUSSENDER
Marcel Wiskow
Kirchhoff Consult AG
Ahrensburger Weg 2
22359 Hamburg
T +49 40 60 91 86 55
F +49 40 60 91 86 60
marcel.wiskow@kirchhoff.de
www.kirchhoff.de
quelle: http://www.pressemeldungen.at/bauenwohnen/d9f65e9ad7125f20f.html
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