Lured by Property Bargains, Foreign Investors Flock to Berlin.

Drawn by some of the lowest property prices in Europe and signs of an economic revival in Germany, foreign investors are rushing to Berlin to get a piece of the hot real estate market.

Christine Munch, a 31-year-old graphic designer from Norway, last year bought an apartment in Berlin's Mitte neighbourhood for 157,000 euros ($203,000), or less than at least three times the amount she would have paid for a comparable place in Oslo.

"Owning an apartment that's really cheap in the middle of such a vibrant and culturally rich city is a dream come true," said Munch of her 100-square-meter (1,080-square-feet) home located on the 19th floor of a prefabricated high-rise close to where the Berlin Wall once stood.

The apartment, which offers sweeping views of the city, is five minutes away from a subway station in the city's centre.

Flood of foreign homebuyers

Notwithstanding Berlin's sluggish economy and high jobless rate, Munch is among a wave of foreign buyers lured to the German capital in recent years by some of the lowest property prices in Europe. Most of the investors are from Britain, Ireland and the US, followed by Spain, Norway, Sweden and France.

Jürgen Michael Schick, vice president of the IVD Real Estate Association of Germany said that over 10 billion euros were spent on Berlin properties in 2006. "Foreign investors accounted for more than 66 percent of those transactions," he said.

The surge in interest is fuelled by coverage in the international media with British dailies such as The Observer and The Daily Telegraph labelling Berlin a good place to buy a second home and the property pages of newspapers in France, Spain and Ireland routinely advertising real estate in the German capital.

"Cheapest metropolis in Europe"

"Berlin is the cheapest metropolis in Europe. Real estate values are significantly lower than those in London, New York or even Prague and Moscow," said Philipp C. Tabert, head of Berlin-based real estate consultancy Winters & Hirsch, whose firm generated annual revenue of 220 million euros last year. Almost 95 percent of Tabert's clients are from Britain, Ireland, America, Spain, Italy and France.

The dramatically low-cost nature of Berlin's property market is obvious when compared with other European cities.

According to statistics, real estate prices for Berlin dropped every year from 1996 to 2004. For that same period, real estate values in London climbed 80 percent. One estimate said a square meter for a renovated apartment in a prime area in Berlin today costs around 1,500 euros, while in London it's no less than 15,000 euros.

It's a difference that's hard to ignore.

Gary Savage, a teacher from London, said his 87-square-meter apartment in the heart of the coveted Mitte district -- for which he shelled out 145,000 euros -- was a real bargain.
"You couldn't even buy a garage or a shed in London today for that price," he said.
Eastern neighborhoods still popular.

Foreign homebuyers are attracted to the neighbourhoods of Friedrichshain, Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte in former Communist-ruled East Berlin -- famed for their fashionable cafes, lively clubs and central locations. But investors are also increasingly shopping around in districts in western Berlin such as Zehlendorf and Steglitz and other outlying neighbourhoods, experts say.
In recent years, not only private homebuyershave been flocking to Berlin but also increasingly private equity funds, such as New York-based Cerberus Capital Management and Goldman Sachs Group's Whitehall investment fund. In 2004, the two together bought 65,700 units of Berlin's public housing for 2.1 billion euros.

In 2006, other big investors included Swedish insurance company Akelius and GE Real Estate.
"Today foreign investors aren't just looking for high yields and quick profits but are more interested in sustainability with a long-term commitment of 10 to 15 years," Schick said, adding that Berlin's home-ownership rate of just 13 percent also meant that the market still had potential to grow.

Experts point out that foreign investors are also emboldened by signs of an overall economic revival in Germany as rising consumer confidence drives demand for housing. The country's economy is expected to increase by 2.5 percent this year, unemployment fell to the lowest in four years in November and business confidence surged to a 15-month high.

Most agree that Berlin's present property boom is here to stay as opposed to the upswing of the 1990s, which was marked by a spectacular crash when a state-owned bank had to be bailed out by the city as a result of failed real-estate investments.

"In the long-term, Berlin property investments will turn out to be very positive," Schick said.

"We're expecting them to reach a new record in 2007."

by Sonia Phalnikar

source: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2307762,00.html

Letter from Berlin: Boom Time for Revamped Economy

The German economy, written off in the last five years as fat, lazy and condemned to long-term decline, is bouncing back thanks to corporate cost-cutting, surging demand for its cars and machinery and the reforms of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

By David Crossland in Berlin

DPA

Shoppers crowded into the new Karstadt department store in Leipzig ahead of Christmas. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who declared in June that Germany was a "basket case" in need of a radical restructuring, must be eating her words. Seven months on, the world's third-largest economy behind the United States and Japan is powering ahead as fast-growing economies in eastern Europe and Asia clamour for just the kind of goods Germany specializes in -- autos, industrial equipment and chemicals.

The "sick man of Europe" tag that stuck to Germany for half a decade after 2000 has disappeared. Germany is now regarded as the most competitive economy in the 13-nation euro single currency area, according to a survey of 1,175 European top executives published by business daily Handelsblatt this week.

Its perceived competitiveness even matches that of the United Kingdom, long cited as a model for Europe after the radical privatization and welfare cutbacks imposed by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

The speed of the recovery has surprised the government which in the spring was predicting growth of 1.6 percent this year -- it has since revised that up to 2.5 percent. Until a few months ago, some economists were warning that the €25 billion in tax hikes coming into force in 2007 could choke off the upturn.

They too have changed their minds. After an expected dip to below 2 percent in 2007, growth is widely expected to pick up again in 2008.

The upturn was evident during the buoyant Christmas shopping season which delighted retailers, even though part of their higher sales was attributed to advance purchases to avoid the three-point hike in the VAT (sales tax) to 19 percent at the start of 2007.

A stream of good news has washed away the gloom and self-doubt which prompted former German President Johannes Rau to declare in 2004 that the country was in a state of "collective depression."

Southern German toy manufacturer Playmobil ran extra shifts but still couldn't keep up with Christmas demand for its biggest seller, a €120 hospital. December saw MTU Aero Engines win a €110 million contract to supply engines to China. And Siemens together with IBM clinched a €7.1 billion deal to modernize the entire IT network of the German army.

Figures out on Wednesday showed that unemployment, Germany's biggest headache for over a decade, fell by a seasonally adjusted 108,000 in December, the ninth consecutive monthly decline, to 4.115 million or 9.8 percent of the workforce.

"This appears to be a sustained upturn," Gernot Nerb, chief economist at the Munich-based Ifo economic research institute, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Germany has become more competitive in recent years, unit labor costs have fallen here while they've increased in rival economies such as Italy."

"It's primarily been due to painful restructuring by companies, but the government has done things too," said Nerb. Top companies such as industrial group Siemens or Volkswagen have been outsourcing production to lower-cost countries in eastern Europe and have pushed through cost-cutting deals with their employees in Germany. In many cases workers have been agreeing to work longer hours for lower pay to avoid threatened plant closures.

Ifo expects GDP growth to slow to 1.9 percent in 2007 from a projected 2.5 percent in 2006, and sees it accelerating back to 2.3 percent in 2008. The DIW economic institute projects 1.7 percent growth in 2007.


Jobless benefit cuts and tougher rules for the long-term unemployed implemented in 2003 and 2004 proved so unpopular that they effectively brought down former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, defeated in a 2005 general election he called early after a string of regional election routs.

But to Merkel's delight, they now seem to be having an effect. "People are under much more pressure to find work now," said Lothar Hessler, an economist at HSBC Trinkaus. "Germany makes just the kind of investment goods that are in strong demand in growth markets like Asia," said Hessler, who said he saw no major risks to the economy in 2007.

Even the slowdown in the US economy, which sucks in 20 percent of German auto exports, is expected to be so soft and temporary that it won't do huge harm, say economists.

With everything looking hunky dory, powerful voices in the government seem tempted to spare the country further reforms. Kurt Beck, the leader of the center-left Social Democrat party which shares power with Merkel's conservatives, said the government's current program of measures had taken Germans to "the limit of what they can take."

While Merkel responded by stressing that her government would push forward with further reforms, Beck's comments were widely interpreted as a signal that the grand coalition isn't going to venture far beyond the health service cutbacks, tax and labor market reforms it has decided over the last year.


The problem is that there's so much still to do. Germany's rate of long-term unemployed people at 5 percent in 2005 was among the highest in the European Union. Few of them are qualified for the thousands of vacancies for skilled jobs in top industries. Industrial firms reported in December that they had vacancies for more than 20,000 engineers.

Meanwhile, eastern Germany continues to fall further behind the far more prosperous west. And red tape still represents a major obstacle to business start-ups. Examples of bureaucratic folly abound, such as the building firm that was almost shut down because its ceiling was two centimeters too low, or the photographer who was told to install a window in his darkroom so that his staff had access to natural light.

And despite the recovery, Germany can't yet be described as an engine of growth for the continent, said Ifo's Nerb. "Germany remains very strongly reliant on its exports. It won't be a real engine of growth until its domestic demand really takes off, which would suck in imports from elsewhere in Europe."

source: http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,457593,00.html

Investors Bet on German Property Boom

Investment in German commercial property is at a record high, boosted by the flood of foreign investors who are betting that the recovery in Europe's largest economy will at last trigger rising demand for offices and shops.

The volume of German commercial property transactions more than doubled to € 47,45bn ($59.8bn) last year from 2005, according to figures by Jones Lang Lasalle, the property consultant and investor. Activity is at an all-time high and foreign investors account for 79 per cent of the deal volume.

"We have seen extreme inflows of money in the German property market, mostly from the US," said Wolfhard Leichnitz, chief executive of IVG Immobilien.

"The big question now is when we will see fundamentals catching up with expectations," said Christian Ulbrich, managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle in Frankfurt. Mr Ulbrich expects the combination of economic growth and lower supply of offices to drive rents up. JLL forecasts average rent in the big five cities to rise between 1.8 and 4.6 per cent a year until 2009.

The introduction of real estate investment trusts in Germany this year is expected to boost investor interest in property assets further. Mr Leichnitz said IVG was considering whether to turn the company into a Reit.

source: FINANCIAL TIMES

Berlin realty finally waking up

Foreigners enter the market after 8 years of price declines

By Patrick Donahue Bloomberg News
Wednesday, December 27, 2006

BERLIN: Yngve Fredheim, a 60-year- old civil engineer from Norway, bought an apartment in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin last year for €300,000, or about 60 percent less than a comparable apartment back home in Oslo.

He is among a wave of foreign buyers lured by some of the lowest property prices in Europe and signs of an economic revival in Germany. Real estate pages of British newspapers, including The Times and The Telegraph, have labeled Berlin a good market for buying a second home.

"It's really cheap, and it's one of the best locations in Berlin," Fredheim said of his four-room residence, which measures 112 square meters, or 1,200 square feet, and has been renovated for the first time since the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II. "It's a metropolis. It has something similar to Paris and London, so if the Germans get the economy going, it'll be a good investment."

Berlin, a city of 3.4 million people, is an anomaly among European capitals: It has the country's biggest population but is not the financial or industrial center. After hopes of becoming the hub for European trade and politics after the collapse of the Berlin Wall 17 years ago were not realized, residential real estate prices dropped every year from 1996 to 2004. Real estate values in London climbed 80 percent during that time.

The tide may be turning. A total of €6.33 billion, or $8.36 billion, was spent on Berlin properties in the first nine months of 2006, up from €2.95 billion a year earlier, according to the local government's Web site. By the end of the year, the figure may reach a record of more than €10.8 billion, the newspaper Tagesspiegel reported last week, citing a member of the government's survey board.

One destination for homebuyers is the eastern neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg -- prized for its leafy, cobbled streets, trendy cafés and proximity to the city center. Apartments cost about €2,500 to €3,000 a square meter, 20 percent to 25 percent of London prices, said Wolf-Dieter Lahmann, director of the real estate agency BIST Immobilien.

Other districts where foreigners are shopping include Köpenick, one of the most prosperous in the eastern part of the city, and the western areas of Wilmersdorf, Zehlendorf and Steglitz.
"Last year it really took off," said Lahmann, whose agency concentrates on Prenzlauer Berg. About 25 percent of its sales are to non-Germans --mostly Americans, Britons, Italians, Irish, Scandinavians and Greeks.

Many of the investors have jobs that bring them to Berlin regularly and want to avoid staying in hotels, Lahmann said. Others buy apartments for children who are studying at Berlin universities. Still others are moving to the German capital.

Quick profits may not be on the horizon, though. Lahmann said that investing in Berlin real estate required a 10- to 20-year commitment.

Tobias Just of Deutsche Bank said: "In the long term, Berlin is very positive because it has a good infrastructure. It's not as much so in the midterm. In the short term, you'd have to think twice about it."

For foreign investors who rent out their apartments, the current prices may bring higher returns.

Berlin landlords are able to charge annual rents that yield 6.5 percent to 7 percent of the purchase price, said Frank Schollenberger of Jones Lang LaSalle, a realty agency based in Chicago. Yields in London and Dublin are half that, he said.

"You couldn't even imagine such a thing in London," Schollenberger said.

The German economy is also helping, as rising consumer confidence drives demand for housing. Gross domestic product is expected to increase 2.3 percent this year, the strongest result since 2000. Unemployment fell in November to the lowest level in four years, while business confidence surged to match a 15-year high.

Private equity funds are interested in Berlin real estate. Cerberus Capital Management and Goldman Sachs's Whitehall investment fund bought 65,700 units of public housing in the city in 2004, mostly in lower-rent districts, for €2.1 billion, an early bet on climbing prices.
Such purchases have started to affect prices, according to David Milleker of Allianz Dresdner Economic Research. He said the trend would continue nationwide.

Because of the stagnant prices, he noted, rental yields are up 2 percent since 1995. In Britain, yields are 40 percent of their 1995 level, Milleker said.

"The appearance of big buyers from abroad can thus certainly be seen as tending to have a positive impact on price developments," Milleker wrote in a report.

source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/26/bloomberg/bxberlin.php

Große Umsätze in Berlin

Ausländische Anleger drängen auf den Markt Das lässt etablierte Projektentwickler umsteuern

Matthias Oloew 18.12.2006 0:00 Uhr

Das Interesse an Immobilien und Grundstücken in Berlin zieht weiter an. Am Sonntag meldete der börsennotierte Frankfurter Immobilieninvestor DIC Asset, dass er mit Hilfe der US-Bank Morgan Stanley für 147 Millionen Euro Immobilien der Landesbank übernommen hat. Zu dem Paket gehören 51 Objekte, vor allem Büros, Dienstleistungs- und Einkaufsgebäude in Charlottenburg, Wilmersdorf und Schöneberg (siehe Kasten). Die Häuser seien zu 82 Prozent vermietet, sagte ein Sprecher der DIC Asset, die sich eine Anfangsrendite von sieben Prozent verspricht.Von der Nachfrage profitiert auch der größte Immobilienvermarkter Berlins, der senatseigene Liegenschaftsfonds. „Wir werden bis zum Jahresende rund 40 Millionen Euro mehr als geplant an die Landeskasse abführen können“, kündigte Geschäftsführer Holger Lippmann gegenüber dem Tagesspiegel an. Geplant sei ein Erlös von 130 Millionen Euro, es würden aber mehr als 170 Millionen erreicht. Nur drei Mal konnte der Fonds in seiner Geschichte mehr Umsatz erzielen.Einige der Verkäufe haben ein zweistelliges Millionenergebnis für den Fonds gebracht, so Lippmann. Dazu gehöre der Verkauf der Friedrichstraße 100 zwischen Admiralspalast und Hochbahnviadukt, das Grundstück der „Loretta“-Gastronomie an der Lietzenburger Straße, aber vor allem der Verkauf des knapp zehn Hektar großen Areals zum Bau der neuen Zentrale des Bundesnachrichtendienstes. Bund und Berlin sagen über den Kaufpreis nichts; es ist aber von etwa 47 Millionen Euro die Rede.„Es ist sehr viel Kapital aus dem Ausland auf dem Markt“, sagt Lippmann und erklärt sich so auch die große Nachfrage nach Wohnimmobilien. Die landeseigenen Grundstücke am Humboldthafen, in direkter Nähe des Hauptbahnhofs, seien zwar noch gar nicht im Angebot, „wir haben aber schon jetzt gut ein Dutzend Interessenten, die sich für die Grundstücke interessieren, auf denen Wohngebäude errichtet werden sollen.“Die Nachfrage nach Wohngebäuden lässt auch Immobilienentwickler umsteuern, die sich bisher nicht damit beschäftigt haben. Beispiel: Die bundeseigene Vivico, die vor allem ehemalige Liegenschaften der Deutschen Bahn vermarktet. „Wir stehen vor einem Strukturwechsel“, sagt Unternehmenssprecher Wilhelm Brandt.

quelle: http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/;art270,2123277

Comprar casa nella capitale dell'Est Europa - BERLINO

A Berlino un mercato immobiliare in fermento ma ancora accessible

di Marta Fontolan, da Berlino, novembre 2006

Dopo anni di oscurità, brancolando nel buio in una situazione politica poco chiara, i prezzi delle proprietà berlinesi sono tuttora ancora bassissimi in confronto alle altre metropoli europee. Mentre gli affitti aumentano sempre più velocemente, i prezzi per le proprietà affondano.

Berlino oggi è ancora il luogo più interessante e vantaggioso d’Europa dove comperare casa. Vi sono tuttavia vantaggi e svantaggi nel possedere una casa o un appartamento. Recentemente grandi quantità di capitale provenienti da tutto il mondo vengono versate proprio a Berlino, soprattutto nel settore immobiliare. Dottori di Dublino, avvocati di Londra, artisti da Parigi e investitori da New York. Un inseguimento generale all’acquisto di proprietà nella location più vantaggiosa al centro dell’Europa.

Sì, finalmente il hype berlinese che imperversa da qualche anno su tutti i mezzi di comunicazione, ha raggiunto anche il mercato immobiliare. Dopo l’esplosione e il fallimento del mercato virtuale di internet e soprattutto dopo gli attacchi terroristici dell’11 settembre, tutto il mondo sta versando denaro liquido nell’investimento apparentemente più sicuro: il mattone. Da qualche anno i prezzi degli affitti e delle case sono svettatati, rendendo la vita sempre più difficile a un largo strato di persone. Chi ha la possibilità preferisce investire i suoi soldi in un mutuo, piuttosto che gettarli via ogni mese.

Tuttavia, alla ricerca disperata dell’occasione più vantaggiosa, tra valore e profitto, la capitale di questo movimento sembra essere proprio la Germania. Dall’inizio del nuovo millennio, qui la vita sembra essere più facile che altrove, da un punto di vista economico: buoni impieghi e possibilità di lavoro, poca o nessuna crescita del costo degli immobili. Un decennio fa, furono soprattutto gli investitori irlandesi e britannici, con particolare appetito per le proprietà, a favorire i mercati emergenti dell’Europa centro orientale, come Ucraina, Romania a Bulgaria. Ora la situazione è cambiata. A partire da qualche anno, grandi gruppi d’investitori britannici e americani hanno iniziato ad assicurarsi centinaia, migliaia di appartamenti, strappati alle municipalità tedesche.

Secondo il Forum Mondiale dell’Economia, la Germania è ora considerata la quinta economia più competitiva nel mondo. Assumendo che in Germania la qualità della vita è nettamente migliorata negli ultimi anni, e che Berlino sembra essere diventata la nuova metropoli europea dell’arte, la moda e il design, gli appartamenti berlinesi, in determinato quartieri considerati particolarmente trendy dagli stranieri, hanno aumentano il loro valore sul mercato del 20%. Per la prima volta dopo la seconda guerra mondiale.

L’origine degli affitti un tempo così economici è da ricercare nella politica socialista della ex-DDR, in cui l’affitto, una volta ottenuto l’appartamento, risultava qualcosa di formale, come una tassa da pagare allo Stato. Caduto il Muro, con la città e il governo in subbuglio, per lungo tempo gli affitti degli appartamenti nella parte orientale di Berlino, un tempo socialista, rimasero irrisori, favorendo anche l’arrivo di artisti internazionali. Molti degli edifici tuttora non si trovano in un buono stato e necessitano di lavori, ma questa decadenza, questo aspetto rovinato, sgarruppato, favorisce sicuramente lo charme, l’atmosfera e il sentimento di ostalgie di questa città.

Camminando per Berlino si respira la storia. Camminare tra le rovine, tra palazzi decadenti che portano ancora sulle loro facciate le ferite di guerre, le sparatorie e i bombardamenti, influenza l’immaginazione. Berlino è nel nostro immaginario poetico la città sfigurata dalla guerra e dalla divisione interna di una nazione. Qui la disoccupazione rimane tristemente ancora alta, con cifre che toccano il 17.5%, conferendo a Berlino la potenza economica pari a quella di una piccola città della Germania occidentale, come Dortmund. Ma alcuni fattori positivi contribuiscono alla crescita di Berlino anche a livello economico: la creazione di un nuovo aeroporto internazionale da inaugurare nei prossimi decenni, l’interesse e l’attenzione dei media internazionali per una Berlino eletta centro di cultura e della vita notturna. La qualità della vita a Berlino è molto alta rispetto alle altre capitali europee, spesso ammalate di stress e violenza. E' ancora un’isola felice in Germania.

A tutto ciò bisogna aggiungete dei prezzi incredibilmente competitivi: gli appartamenti negli Altbau, le vecchie costruzioni in buono stato (termine che qualifica gli edifici costruiti prima della seconda guerra mondiale), e in quartieri gradevoli e attraenti costano circa 2,200 euro/m2. A Barcellona i prezzi si aggirano sui 5,000 euro/m2. A Dublino 4,500 euro/m2. Ciò conferma che la situazione di Berlino è realmente un’eccezione, dovuto alla sua storia veramente eccezionale. Inoltre, sembra che le costruzioni tedesche siano di una qualità e di uno standard superiori a quelle spagnole o inglesi. Negli Altbau berlinesi le camere sono più spaziose e i soffitti più alti, ricordano le case comunali sovietiche con una grande cucina, un corridoio e svariate stanze, entro le quali abitavano numerose famiglie.

La domanda cruciale oggi è questa: dove sta andando il mercato? Tutti sembrano essere d’accordo sull’idea che i prezzi continueranno a salire anche nei prossimi anni. Helena Gura, un’agente immobiliare attiva nel quartiere giovane e trendy di Prenzlauer Berg, è sicura che la domanda continuerà ad aumentare. E' convinta che grazie alla ripresa economica della Germania il capitale, e il denaro liquido, continueranno a fluire nel settore immobiliare sia nel 2007 che nel 2008. Un aumento cospicuo dei prezzi è previsto per l’inizio del 2009.

Anche due anni fa era previsto un aumento della domanda e un conseguente aumento del valore degli appartamenti e del loro prezzo. C’è stato, ma è stato così minimo, che quasi neanche si è notato. Se i tassi d’interesse per i prestiti saliranno sopra il 5.5% sarà molto probabile una diminuzione della richiesta. Un'amica francese, Cécile, che aspetto un bambino e che ormai con il suo compagno tedesco si è stabilita a Berlino, vorrebbe comperare una casa. Ma mi ha confessato che i tassi d’interesse per un mutuo sono già così alti che alla fine non le converrebbe investire nell’acquisto di un immobile.

Helena Gura ribatte che i prezzi sono stabilmente aumentati per oltre un anno e mezzo. E che se si osservano i cicli, le varie fasi subite dalle proprietà a partire dal 1950 si nota che i cicli dei prezzi rimangono stabili per circa 5-6 anni. Secondo gli oscuri, ma ragionati calcoli di Frau Gura, un costante aumento dei prezzi durerà ancora tre o quattro anni. Gli architetti sono tutti concordi nell’affermare che nell’acquisto di una proprietà nell’ex capitale della DDR il fattore più importante, e decisivo, è proprio la location. Ci sono molte proprietà libere sul mercato, ma la maggior parte si trovano in luoghi sbagliati. Ci sono aree molto richieste, soprattutto dagli stranieri, come Prenzlauer Berg, Mitte, Kreuzberg e Friedrichshain, nelle quali i prezzi continuano ad aumentare, soprattutto per quanto riguarda gli affitti.

Prenzlauer Berg, Berlino Est, sembra essere la zona più desiderata, più amata e richiesta. Ciò non accade nella parte occidentale di Berlino, forse perché i media, soprattutto quelli stranieri, focalizzano la loro attenzione sulle zone più cool della Berlino ex socialista. Recentemente un'amica ha comperato una casa a Kollwitzplatz, una deliziosa zona di Prenzlauer Berg: 110m2 per 230,000 euro.

La famiglia Stern, invece, disponendo di una grande quantità di capitale e di un altrettanto alta possibilità di prestito presso le banche, ha deciso di acquistare un terreno sul quale costruire un edificio intero. Loro pensano in grande: avrebbero voluto vivere nello stesso edificio con tutti i loro amici e parenti. Poco prima di firmare il contratto hanno scoperto che il terreno nascondeva elementi chimici tossici e aveva bisogno di essere bonificato. L'operazione sarebbe durata molti anni e sarebbe costata un'ingente quantità di denaro. Per fortuna gli Stern si sono fermati in tempo e hanno scelto una grande mansarda sotto la torre della televisione, ad Alexander Platz.

Se quindi sperate di fare un buon investimento comperando un appartamento a Berlino e rivendendolo nei prossimi anni, questa non è la città, o il mercato immobiliare che fa per voi. Ma se avete pazienza e siete disposti ad aspettare almeno dieci anni, potrebbe rivelarsi un investimento vantaggioso!

Data di pubblicazione: 05/12/2006 - ore 02.01

fonte: http://www.popolis.it/SezioneEspansa.aspx?EPID=1!0!0!1202!46664!

Foreign buyers attracted to Berlin real estate

With some of the lowest real estate prices in Europe, Berlin is an attractive option for foreign investors interested in buying property. We look at the American and British buyers wanting a piece of the German capital.

Berlin is considered the city with the lowest real estate prices in Europe. Even in Moscow or Prague the prices of land and houses are considerably higher than in the German capital. Despite Germany's low economic growth and high unemployment, foreign investors, above all Americans, Britons, and the Irish have discovered Berlin. The returns are considerably higher than anywhere else in Europe, and buyers are speculating that an economic upswing will finally hit Berlin.

"Berlin is in demand like never before," real estate sources say.

Changing hands

According to the latest market report, almost 25,000 purchases were registered in Berlin with more than 9 billion euros (11.5 billion dollars) changing hands in 2005. That's a huge jump from previous years where properties sold amounted to around 18,000 annually. An even greater number is expected in 2007. A square metre of a redeveloped building in a top location costs around 1,500 euros in Berlin, while in London for example the price would be around 15,000 euros. "The situation here is like London about 17 years ago, when for example no one would touch the Docklands with a barge pole," said Philipp Tabert from the real estate agency Winters & Hirsch. Today the Docklands is very popular with office renters, and London the strongest real estate location in Europe.

American interest

In Berlin the boom set in about two years ago when the city's largest residential property firm GSW sold around 65,000 units for 405 million euros to a US investor and its partner. "Thus it was shown that real estate can be had reasonably here," says Tabert. As a result, many Austrian investors came. Today the Americans and the British dominate the market, but investment funds also come from Ireland, Italy, France, Spain and Japan. "Investors from Israel have discovered Germany too," Tabert comments.Classic rental buildings with 30 apartments and one or two shops on the ground floor, commercial buildings as well as residential buildings with as many as 1,000 units are being sold. In addition, supermarkets, shopping centres and shopping malls are in demand.

Sought after

Besides the classic central areas in former West Berlin such as Charlottenburg, Wilmersdorf and Schoeneberg properties are especially sought after in Kreuzberg, a trendy area and site of the yearly May Day riots between leftist activists and police. "The attractive locations in central Mitte district are already taken. There's not much left," says Tabert, but he adds that spots in up and coming trendy eastern Berlin areas of Prenzlauer Berg and increasingly Friedrichshain are becoming especially desirable. After the building of the new Berlin Brandenburg International airport in Schönefeld, the south-east of the city with Treptow, Koepenick and the troubled area of Neukoelln are attracting interest. The airport is having a positive effect on the market as investors can now fly direct to Berlin without connecting with Frankfurt, Munich or Dusseldorf.

Not so well known

The flood of foreign investors after German real estate can also be seen in other cities. "Cities like Salzgitter near Braunschweig or Pforzheim, about 40 kilometres from the French border, are not so well known abroad," says Tabert. Often real estate is packaged with Berlin properties. However highly indebted Berlin will not allow itself to redevelop its central residential districts by selling them off. "Berlin through its city-owned building associations has access to more than 250,000 residences valued at around 10 billion euros, but the city is more than 60 billion in debt," Tabert says. Earlier this year, Dresden sold off 48,000 publicly owned apartments to the US investor group Fortress and with one stroke cleared its debts, though it caused quite a stir. Berlin's left-wing government, however, is strictly against selling off state-owned residences.


source: http://www.expatica.com/de/housing/housing_info/foreign-buyers-attracted-to-berlin-real-estate-32151.html