Juli 29th, 2016

‚Berliner Morgenpost‘ reports on Berlin Apartment Privitization

For international property investors with an interest in Berlin, there appeared an enlightening and informative article by Jens Anker  in the Berliner Morgenpost, which dealt with the issue of rising number of Apartment-privatizations taking place in Berlin.

In spite of a ban in several Berlin districts, the number of rental-apartments which have been bought and then converted into direct ownership apartment continues to rise.

For the last year of 2015, a total of 17 431 apartments were ‘privatized’ according to a report from the ‘Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung ‘ which monitors these things.

This figure came upon a request from the Green Party which pointed to the significant increase compared to the number of privitizations for the previous years, namely in 2014: 11,468 and 2013: 9178

Of the entire Berlin population, presently only 15% own their own apartment and while this may be low compared to other European or North American cities, ownership rates in the city keep rising.

The Berliner Morgenpost article points out that by North German comparison in Hamburg the rate is 24 %, and in Bremen 40%. This trend of apartment-privatization is also driving rents upward and affects tenants in all the Berlin neighborhoods.

Popular areas like Berlin Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg most affected.

Apartment-privatization varies per Berlin district but are most pronounced in the centre in the popular areas like Berlin Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg

This trend of apartment-privatization varies per Berlin district. There is an excellent graph  made by the Berliner Morgenpost which shows by Berlin district the privatizations by region.

We have written before on this blog how Germans are starting to buy their own housing.