BERLIN’S REAL-ESTATE TRANSFORMATION
The German city bohemia is turning into the new bourgeoisie; developers tame the ‚Wild East‘
Oliver Lange looks up from a mass of floor plans spread across his dining table at the sun setting behind an expanse of rooftops and the silhouette of the city’s iconic Fernsehturm communications tower on the horizon.
„This view is what convinced me to buy this apartment,“
says the 41-year-old former day trader.
„I came to Berlin because it’s so multicultural and I wanted to live in this neighborhood. Any other city in Germany is just too German.“
While looking for an apartment in 2003, Mr. Lange says it was hard to find a space that was big enough on the one hand and still in the middle of the kiez (the colloquial Berlin expression for neighborhood). But in this building near Kollwitz Square, he was able to buy two apartments and meld them into a spacious seven-bedroom, 245-square-meter penthouse with fantastic views of the city skyline. The design is minimalist and modern, with plenty of windows letting in light. The top floor—redesigned from the original attic—is an open kitchen, living room with fireplace and dining space in a cozy atrium with floor-to-ceiling windows that open onto a small terrace and provide a view over the rooftops toward historic Berlin Mitte.
„It was at the peak of my career as a day trader and I wanted to have something of my own,“ says Mr. Lange. „Initially I didn’t buy the apartment as an investment. I really thought I would grow old here.“
Like Greenwich Village in New York, Prenzlauer Berg was once the center of a particular subculture. Before the Berlin Wall fell, it was home to a mix of East German musicians, artists, intellectuals and ordinary working folk. After the Wall fell, former East Berlin neighborhoods like Prenzlauer Berg, Mitte and Friedrichshain were a magnet for creative types looking for the „Wild East.“ But 20 years after the reunification of Germany, and billions spent on rebuilding the eastern states, the East has been tamed and living in Berlin is being transformed. hip is a moveable feast and as new wealth arrives, the new residents and professional developers are turning Berlin’s bohemia into the new bourgeoisie. Today Prenzlauer Berg (which means Prenzlau hill) is more well known as „pregnant hill,“ as young hipsters grow up, get jobs, marry and have kids.
Berlin hasn’t always been known for luxury and extravagance, but judging by the growing demand for luxury living quarters, it may be importing wealth and, with it, a demand for high-class living. Location and price are the compelling arguments attracting international buyers, including celebrities like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and Sylvester Stallone. Danish artist Olafur Eliasson has renovated an old factory into a combined living and studio complex in Mitte.
„On an international scale, Berlin is very inexpensive. London would be three times as high for the same space,“
says Thomas Wolfensberger, chief executive and a founding investor of Peach Property.
„The East is the place where Berlin is reinventing itself, where you can become part of history and build on a historic site.“
One of the fastest-growing segments of new housing in the city is luxury residences, according to a new study by property-research group BulwienGesa AG. There are currently 205 luxury apartments under construction in Berlin, of which half are being built in Berlin Mitte, the central district that is home to Germany’s government and Parliament, the reichstag, Potsdamer Platz and major tourist attractions such as the Brandenburg Gate. It is also the theater district and famous for its edgy bars and nightclubs.
One of the major luxury developments underway is Yoo, a project based on designs by French architect Philippe Starck and being developed by Peach Property Group AG, a Zurich-based realestate company. Yoo Berlin was designed by Berlin architect Eike Becker. It is a 10- story, glass-covered multiuse building with cafes at street level and luxury apartments and penthouses ranging from 65 square meters to 310 square meters, and priced from €4,100 to €10,000 per square meter. The Yoo project is located at Am Zirkus 1, the site of Berlin’s old Friedrichstadtpalast, and overlooks the Spree river that cuts a path through downtown.
Another lavish project is Diplomatenpark (diplomat’s park), a community of 16 residences in a leafy neighborhood in Tiergarten, a neighborhood that includes a number of foreign embassies, government buildings and the Tiergarten park, a large public estate that is Berlin’s equivalent of Central Park. An artist’s rendition of Diplomatenpark shows a penthouse swimming pool and views from the deck of the reichstag and Potsdamer Platz.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lange is no longer planning to grow old in his penthouse. he quit day-trading a few years ago after a couple of bad years and is married and plans to spend winters with his family in the Philippines. Although he didn’t buy the apartment as an investment, he has listed it for €1.2 million and will likely make a hefty profit.
„Over the past few years property values in the neighborhood have risen considerably,“
he says.
– William Boston
Write to William Boston at newseditors@wsj.com
Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved
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