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March 12th 2019

By Mansion Global

The district of Mitte is one of Berlin’s most expensive, where you can buy a historic property, an “Altbau” built between 1890 and 1920, for an average of €6,700 per square meter. For the very newest, however, you will pay an average of €8,300 per square meter.

“Mitte is special for its synergy between tradition and modernity,” said Ms. Gärtner, managing partner of Berlin Sotheby’s International Realty. “Berlin-Mitte is characterized on the one hand by spacious and luxurious old buildings, on the other it’s also home to many unique new developments. Many century, Wilhelminian-style apartment buildings are being upgraded with exclusive penthouse apartments, and gaps between buildings are being closed with new developments.”

Other popular areas include Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf in the west, where new builds fetch a similar average of €8,300 per square meter, Gärtner said. Pandion the Haus is set to open in July 2020 in Charlottenburg, between the iconic KaDeWe department store and Berlin Zoo. The one- to four-room apartments are selling for between €368,900 and €2,091,900.

But the luxury market is likely to expand geographically. “Mitte could face competition from up-and-coming neighborhoods such as Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Tiergarten,” Ms. Gärtner said.

In the hip Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg neighborhoods in east Berlin, a new-build apartment will already cost you an average of around €6,900 to €8,000 per square meter.

How long the buzz about Berlin will continue remains to be seen, but agents predict price increases may start to cool off. Forecasts until 2030 predict that this will slow to an average increase of 0.5% per year, according to Sotheby’s.

But Claire Locke of Knight Frank is more optimistic. "We are still seeing a great deal of interest from international investors and believe this will continue over the coming years,” she said. Prices are going to increase, albeit at a slightly more moderate pace, Ms. Locke said. “The population in Berlin continues to increase; 20,000 new apartments are needed each year to keep up with demand, but completions are only around 15,000; and Berlin's economy is growing at an above average rate compared to the rest of Germany.”

She points out that PricewaterhouseCooper’s “Emerging Trends in Real Estate” named Berlin as the second best city for overall investment prospects in 2019 and cites a new airport—the Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport (BER), due to finally open in October 2020—as being a trigger for another phase of growth.

For now,  Berlin’s incredible 24/7 public transport system, diversity of districts in terms of atmosphere, prices, people and architecture mean it doesn’t matter what you like or how you want to live, you will find a suitable apartment and neighborhood in Berlin.