Every Major Publication Now Has To Have A Property Ranking

It seems like every main media publication now has to have a price ranking for property prices and rents. Some cover the entire country and some break it down to districts within boroughs of the main cities.

Berlin Property Prices

Here is an example from the weekly publication Wirtschaftswoche which lists areas in five price categories:

• very reasonable city districts - average 2,372 €/m²
• reasonable city districts - average 2,682 €/m²
• middle priced districts - average 2,904 €/m²
• expensive districts - average 3,434 €/m²
• very expensive districts - average 4,415 €/m²

Here is the list for "very expensive districts: 3,750 to 5,870 €/m² in increasing order:

Alt-Treptow, Plänterwald, Wannsee, Charlottenburg, Friedenau, Wilmersdorf, Nikolassee, Zehlendorf, Hansaviertel, Moabit, Schmargendorf, Friedrichshain, Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Halensee, Kreuzberg, Grunewald, Dahlem, Tiergarten

*Data based on condos of 75 m²

The full list of all price categories is available in German on Wirtschaftswoche.

The Berlin District Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Is About To Get Their First Two "Milieuschutz" Areas

In July 2017 the local council of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf had published the plan to declare the first two gentrification protected  "Milieuschutz" areas.for a period of 12 months any activity contradicting these plans can be denied. The district is now set to publicly declare the Milieuschutz for two areas:

Around Mierendorffplatz across the river Spree to the east of the Charlottenburg Castle.

"Mierendorff-Insel"

Full size

Around Gierkeplatz to the southwest from the castle south of Otto-Suhr-Allee.

"Gierkeplatz"

Full size

Further areas in Charlottenburg around Klausener Platz and in Wilmersdorf along Kurfürstenstrasse are currently discussed without any action taken yet.

For more information about the implications for a property owner see my articles:
The Can Do and Can't Do Renovating Apartments in Certain Areas of Berlin
Thinking About Dividing an Apartment Block into Condos in Berlin? What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

New Candidate Areas for "Milieuschutz" in Berlin Mitte

The Berlin district Mitte is considering to add more areas to the existing 5 “Milieuschutz” areas or to use the official title “Städtbauliche Erhaltungsgebiete”. A consortium of experts was instructed to look into areas that previously were suspected of being under pressure regarding modernizations and rent increases. The quarters (Kiez) under investigation are Soldiner Straße, Kattegatstraße, Reinickendorfer Straße and Humboldthain Nord-West.

Soldiner Straße, Berlin Wedding
By A.Savin (Wikimedia Commons · WikiPhotoSpace) [FAL or CC BY-SA 3.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

The study shows that a large proportion of the population in these areas are now in danger of being pushed out by rent increases. Over the last decades, significant public investment went into these areas to improve the quality of living. This has attracted higher income tenants which in turn raises the attention of property investors.

The apartment buildings in these areas have a high potential for modernisation followed by rent increases: e.g. half of the apartments don’t have a balcony, very few have a lift.

These four areas are to be closely monitored for activities leading to the actual decision by the local council. Once the decision for starting the process for the declaration of “Milieuschutz” is published, certain activities like Title Split can already be blocked.

For more information about the implications for a property owner see my articles:

The Can Do and Can't Do Renovating Apartments in Certain Areas of Berlin

Thinking About Dividing an Apartment Block into Condos in Berlin? What Could Possibly Go Wrong?